Buzz-Kill: Special Interest-Owned Conservative Democrats, Not Plain Ole Democrats, Took Over The Virginia Legislature

Lobbyist (right) beat the progressive (left) for Virginia House speaker

Blue America didn't endorse too many candidates in the Virginia legislative election-- just 6 outstanding progressives who we were able to vet to our satisfaction. Three won-- Lee Carter (53-46%), Elizabeth Guzman (52-47%) and Danica Roem (56-44%)-- and three lost-- Herb Jones (60-40%), Qasim Rashid (58-42%) and Eric Stamps (61-39%). The Virginia Democratic establishment is as bad as you'd expect. Just think: Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both of whom have F ratings from ProgressivePunch, and Governoe Ralph Northam who's... better than a Republican and not much more than that. The establishment doesn't much like progressives.

So no one should be surprised that yesterday, a few days after flipping 6 seats in the House of Delegates, they elected a corrupt Republican-lite conservative lobbyist, Eileen Fisher-Corn as speaker. And they say everyone should be happy this crook is the speaker because they never had a woman-- or a Jew-- in the role before. Yeah. An old white conservative without a penis, beat out a younger progressive woman of color, Lashrecse Aird. Two other conservative Democrats wiped out progressives in the races for majority leader and caucus chair.

Reporting for HuffPo Daniel Marans wrote that "The result is a disappointment to progressives inside and outside of the chamber who hoped Democrats would pick the state’s first Black speaker and bristled at Filler-Corn’s full-time job as managing director of a lobbying firm with major corporate clients. Filler-Corn’s spokesperson has said she would recuse herself from votes on legislation in which her firm, Albers & Company, has a vested interest. 'The firsts are not lost on me-- the first woman and the first Jewish person elected Speaker-designee in our 400 year legislative history-- but it doesn’t define me,' Filler-Corn said in a statement. 'When I joined this body less than 10 years ago, I was the only mom serving with school-aged kids. We have come so far since then. We have the most diverse House Caucus in our history, which includes cultural, gender and geographic diversity,' she continued. 'It also means a diversity of experience and perspectives on issues that affect Virginians, in all regions.'... Her victory, along with those of Herring and Sullivan, ensures that Virginia House Democrats are marching in tandem with Gov. Ralph Northam and the Democratic-controlled state Senate, where business-friendly, four-decade veteran, Dick Saslaw, is in charge."

Aird, a 33-year-old Petersburg resident and chief of staff of William & Mary’s junior college, who was first elected in 2015, embodies the state’s shifting demographics and politics. Aird had promised to expand and open up the House’s leadership and committee system, giving greater leeway to the state House’s ascendant group of economic populists. She is backed by hedge fund manager Michael Bills, a leading critic of the state’s famously powerful electric utility monopolies-- Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power. And she claimed that she would allow votes on pro-union bills granting the public sector collective bargaining rights and repealing Virginia’s status as a “right to work” state where unions are forbidden from compelling workers they represent to pay dues.

Observers wondered whether, with her underdog speakership bid, the state’s Democratic Party might reach a point where it was willing to turn its back, at least in one chamber, on the old “Virginia Way”-- a byword for bipartisan gentility that doubles as a description of the state’s clubby, pro-corporate and ethically challenged political culture.

In the end though, Filler-Corn and her allies, many of whom reside in safe seats and can thus spread their campaign cash to embattled colleagues, fended off the insurgency.

Some members disagreed with Aird’s decision to announce her bid the day after Tuesday’s elections, claiming it was too soon. They also lamented the way that Aird had fought her race in the press, according to the person familiar with the deliberations who spoke to HuffPost on the condition of anonymity. It’s a pitfall inherent to running as a gate-crasher in a state where etiquette is something of a civic religion.

Now that they are in power, Democrats in the Virginia legislature are almost certain to move quickly to tighten gun safety regulations, strengthen protections for LGBTQ residents and even raise the state’s minimum wage, which is currently only $7.25 an hour.

But the prospects of more ambitious expansions of the social welfare state and efforts to take on the Old Dominion’s most powerful corporations, including its utility monopolies, have grown considerably dimmer. Efforts to combat climate change, in particular, are likely to be far more accommodating to Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power than antitrust advocates would like. These activists fear not only that the monopolies, which extract fossil fuels and generate electricity in addition to transmitting it, will both try to water down climate legislation and dominate any growth in the state’s renewable energy generation.

What’s more, poll watchers noted that the leadership team consists entirely of Democrats from the Washington-area suburbs of northern Virginia. It has prompted fears that they will not adequately represents Democrats from other regions, such as Hampton Roads, central Virginia and southwest Virginia.

“There are 12 House Districts out of 100 that are inside the beltway or on it,” Virginia political consultant Ben Tribbett wrote on Twitter. “The top three positions in the new House will all be filled from there. All by people who underperformed in their first elections by double digits from most recent Presidential. Not a good start.”

Eric Stamps is way too progressive and way to aggressively fighting for working class families to make the Democratic Part establishment embrace him. He knows what the enemy looks like whether they're wearing a red t-shirt or a blue one. "Virginia Democrats," he told us this morning, "have to be more than the NOVA party. I am happy that we took the majority in the House and Senate, but not much has changed in rural areas. Many rural candidates have to go it alone, even battling with members of their own local party which should never be an issue. Virginia Democrats have no excuses for the next two years. They have to bring progressive legislation to the floor for votes or they such expect to be primaried the next time their seat is up. We do not have any time to waste, it is time to get things done."

Trump Has Led The GOP Into A Death Spiral-- Last Night Was Just A Taste Of What's Coming

This morning, Aaron Blake noted at the Washington Post that "When President Trump was elected, he promised the GOP that they would win so much they would get tired of it. But for a third successive election year since then, the Republican Party has walked away the loser." Also this morning a top Democratic congressional staffer told me that she spoke to "two different Republican Hill staffers who have expressed serious concerns with how badly last night went for them. They described Virginia and Kentucky outcomes as canaries in the coal mine for 2020. Despite all the negative news and concerning polls, they were holding out hope that the DC news cycle wasn't breaking through in the rest of the country. That illusion was shattered last night and now congressional Republicans are starting to realize what it will be like to run with Trump in 2020. It appears impeachment politics aren't as catastrophic to Democrats as initially thought; the Kentucky gubernatorial race was pitted as a referendum on impeachment in a state Trump won by 30 and the incumbent Republican still lost. Trump made the election about him (which he will of course do in 2020) and the result was a complete disaster for his party." As we mentioned last night, the Democrats won and Trump lost. Even in Mississippi, in the heart of the Confederacy/Trumplandia, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves' less-than-stellar win is dimmed when put into historical context:

• 2019- Reeves (R)- 443,063 (52.3%), Hood (D)- 394,177 (46.5%)
• 2015- Bryant (R)- 476,697 (66.4%), Gray (D)- 231,643 (32.3%)
• 2011- Bryant (R)- 544,851 (61%), DuPree (D)- 348,617 (39%)
• 2007- Barbour (R)- 430,807 (57.9%), Eaves (D)- 313,232 (42.1%)
• 2003- Barbour (R)- 470,404 (52.6%), Musgrove (D)- 409,787 (46.8%)

Reeves had the worst results of any Republican candidate in recent times. And that was the best news Trump and the GOP had yesterday.

Kentucky is one of Trump's best states. The PVI is R+15. Only Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming are redder. These are the 2016 results that were the best for Trump:

• West Virginia- 68.50, Hillary 26.43
• Wyoming- Trump 67.40%, Hillary 21.63%
• Oklahoma- Trump 65.32, Hillary 28.93%
• North Dakota- Trump 62.96%, Hillary 27.23%
• Kentucky- Trump 62.52%, Hillary 32.68%
• Alabama- Trump 62,08, Hillary 34.36%

If Trump's best effort-- and his non-stop efforts on behalf of Bevin was the best he is capable of-- couldn't win the day in Kentucky, how will Trump be able to help anyone anywhere? On Monday night Trump was in Lexington playing the role of clown on behalf of Bevin: "If you lose, they’re going to say Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world. You can’t let that happen to me!" They did. Two days before the election, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundegan Grimes predicted that turnout would be 31%, essentially the same miserable turnout Kentucky had in the 1015 gubernatorial election (30.7%). She was way off. By yesterday 42% of eligible voters had cast ballots. It was 45% in Jefferson (Louisville) and 47% in Fayette (Lexington) counties, an increase in the two counties that put Beshear ahead of Bevin.

Moscow Mitch isn't the only Republican incumbent who slept poorly last night. GOP senators in Arizona, Maine, Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia, Alaska and Montana did not sleep well last night. Last chart. This one shows Trump's net approval/disapproval in each these key Senate battleground states-- along with how much Trump's approval has fallen in each state since he occupied the White House. (It didn't rise in any state).

• Kentucky- plus 15 (down 19 points)
• Arizona- minus 4 (down 23 points)
• Maine- minus 13 (down 21 points)
• Colorado- minus 15 (down 16 points)
• Iowa- minus 14 (down 22 points)
• North Carolina- minus 3 (down)
• Georgia- plus 1 (down 17 points)
• Alaska- plus 1 (down 23 points)
• Montana- minus 3 (down 27 points)

As the AP made clear this morning "The suburban revolt against President Donald Trump’s Republican Party is growing. And if nothing else, the GOP’s struggle across the South on Tuesday revealed that Republicans don’t have a plan to fix it. In Kentucky, Trump and his allies went all in to rescue embattled Gov. Matt Bevin, who literally wrapped himself in the president’s image in his pugnacious campaign. In Virginia, embattled Republicans ran away from Trump, downplaying their support for his policies and encouraging him to stay away. In the end, neither strategy was a sure winner... [T]there’s little doubt Tuesday’s outcome is a warning to Republicans across the nation a year out from the 2020 election and a year after the 2018 midterms: The suburbs are still moving in the wrong direction."

“Republican support in the suburbs has basically collapsed under Trump,” Republican strategist Alex Conant said. “Somehow, we need to find a way to regain our suburban support over the next year.”

...[T]he GOP’s challenge was laid bare in places like Virginia’s Henrico County just outside Richmond.

Republican state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant won there by almost 20 percentage points four years ago. The area has recently been transformed by an influx of younger, college-educated voters and minorities, a combination that’s become a recipe for Democrats’ support.

With the final votes still trickling in Tuesday night, Dunnavant was barely ahead [final: 50.88% to 48.95%] of Democrat Debra Rodman, a college professor who seized on Trump and her Republican opponent’s opposition to gun control to appeal to moderate voters.

In northern Virginia, Democrat John Bell flipped a state Senate district from red to blue in a district that has traditionally favored Republicans. The race, set in the rapidly growing and diverse counties outside of Washington, D.C., attracted nearly $2 million in political advertising.

Democrats’ surging strength in the suburbs reflects the anxiety Trump provokes among moderates, particularly women, who have rejected his scorched-earth politics and uncompromising conservative policies on health care, education and gun violence.

Republicans’ response in Virginia was to try to stay focused on local issues. In the election’s final days, Dunnavant encouraged Trump to stay out of the state. The president obliged, sending Vice President Mike Pence instead.

Struggling for a unifying message, some Republicans turned to impeachment, trying to tie local Democrats to their counterparts in Washington and the effort to impeach Trump.

No one played that card harder than Kentucky’s Bevin, who campaigned aside an “impeachment” banner and stood next to Trump on the eve of the election.

But even in ruby-red Kentucky, Trump was not a cure-all and the trouble in the suburbs emerged.

Bevin struggled in Republican strongholds across the northern part of the state, where the Democrats’ drift and increased enthusiasm was clear.

In 2015, Bevin won Campbell County south of Cincinnati handily. On Tuesday, Beshear not only carried the county with ease, he nearly doubled the number of Democratic votes there, compared to the Democratic nominee of four years ago. Beshear also found another 74,000 Democratic votes in urban Jefferson County, home of Louisville.

Beshear led Bevin by the narrowest of margins Tuesday night.

Republicans were quick to blame Bevin for his stumbles. The governor was distinctly unpopular and picked fights with powerful interests in the state. Still, it was difficult for Republicans not to note the warning signs for the party next year and beyond.

“They continue to lose needed support in suburban districts, especially among women and college-educated voters,” said Republican strategist Rick Tyler. “That trend, if not reversed, is a death spiral.”

Democratic enthusiasm and turnout was sky-high in Kentucky and Virginia, where Democrats ran on Democratic issues and values. In Mississippi, where the fake-Democrat ran on a repulsive anti-Choice/pro-NRA, GOP-lite record, there was no enthusiasm and Democratic turnout was terrible. (As I noted last night, even in New Jersey's only state Senate race-- the one to replace Blue Dog ass-wipe Jeff Van Drew-- Van Drew's handpicked right-wing candidate, Bob Andrzejczak, ran on a GOP-lite record and lost to the real Republican, Mike Testa 27,163 (53.47%) to 23,636 (46.53%). Count on the Democrats-- especially the DCCC-- to absolutely not learn a lesson from this.

The were local races all over the country and the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on how dismally they went for Republicans in Pennsylvania. "The political forces that shaped last year’s midterm elections," wrote Julia Terruso, showed no signs of abating Tuesday, as voters turned on Republicans and establishment Democrats alike in races from Philadelphia and Scranton to the suburbs of Delaware and Chester Counties... Locally, Democrats will hold all five seats on the Delaware County Council, a Republican stronghold since the Civil War, and also assumed a majority on the legislative body in Chester County. In Bucks County, Democrats also held a late lead for control of the board of commissioners in a close race. And in Philadelphia, a third-party insurgent candidate weakened an already marginalized GOP by securing one of the at-large City Council seats reserved for minority parties-- a seat Republicans have held for decades. 'It’s a new day in Delaware County,' said Elaine Schaefer, one of three Democrats elected Tuesday in Delaware County. Democrats had never held a majority on the county council in its history, let alone every seat."

We Met The Enemy And They Are Us by Nancy Ohanian

In Virginia and Kentucky Republicans did everything they could to tie Democrats to Bernie and AOC and to "Socialism!!" and the Green New Deal. The backfired for them badly. In Kentucky the top coal counties are Pike, Harlan, Hopkins, Muhlenberg, Perry, Letchner, Floyd, Union, Knott, Webster and Ohio. Trump beat Hillary in every one of them in 2016-- and by a lot. But in the primaries, Bernie won these counties. In Pike Co. Trump won with 80.1%. It was 77.2% in Perry, 72.0% in Muhlenberg and 84.9% in Harlan County.

Hillary won the Kentucky primary, entirely because of the black turn-out for her in Louisville and Lexington. But she was swamped in every one of the coal counties. Bernie beat her. But Bernie also beat Trump in every one of these counties

Pike- Bernie- 4,848, Hillary- 2,335, Trump- 840
Harlan- Bernie- 1,092, Hillary- 451, Trump- 189
Hopkins- Bernie-2,696 , Hillary- 1,690, Trump- 574
Muhlenberg- Bernie- 1,632, Hillary- 1,544, Trump- 338
Perry- Bernie- 1,666, Hillary- 839, Trump- 421
Letchner- Bernie- 1,788, Hillary- 838, Trump- 410
Floyd- Bernie- 4,010, Hillary- 2,327, Trump- 278
Union- Bernie- 1,106, Hillary- 672, Trump- 92
Knott- Bernie- 1,114, Hillary- 583, Trump- 37
Webster- Bernie- 1,169, Hillary- 693, Trump- 116
Ohio- Bernie- 943, Hillary- 778, Trump- 663

Last night, Beshear won some coal counties and lost some-- but out-performed Hillary massively in all these counties. The biggest coal county in the state is Pike. Beshear took 42.94% compared to Hillary's 17.4%. Beshear won Floyd County with 52.56% and won Knott County with 49.43% compared with 24.3% for Hillary in Floyd and 21.6% for Hillary in Knott.

That billboard was produced and placed by the DSCC, attempting to tie state Senator Erica Smith--the progressive running for the North Carolina U.S. Senate seat-- to AOC and Rashida Tlaib. They produced similar campaigns against Andrew Romanoff in Colorado and Betsy Sweet in Maine. This morning Erica turned the tables on them and ran the billboard as part of a fundraising appeal for herself!

"Republicans," she wrote, "aren't the only ones engaging in rigging elections and suppressing the will of voters in our state. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has been rigging the US Senate race in NC for far too long and it has had disastrous effects on Democracy. They recruited their endorsed candidate after he had been campaigning for Lieutenant Governor for a year. The DSCC doesn't want the people of North Carolina to choose their next Senator. They would prefer a 4 term Senator from New York to tell you how to vote! It didn't work in 2010 when they did the same thing with the same Democratic candidate. Together, we can make sure they don't get another chance to corrode our progressive coalition! 

• People are rationing their insulin and other life-saving medication because they can't afford it.
• Refusal to expand Medicaid reduces the leverage that lawmakers have to negotiate down drug prices.
• The wealthiest 1% receive the bulk of the benefits of our tax code while hard-working Americans continue to lose leverage with their tax dollars.

"If my devotion to your voice and these platforms for progress are considered radical," she concluded, "then sign me up! It should not be radical to amplify the voices of the people over the powerful. Help us continue to spread the good word of the Erica For Us Campaign by giving what you can. This is the people's campaign, now more than ever!"

Election Night 2019-- Trump Stunk It Up For The GOP

Let's follow up on last night's pre-election special for Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi and New Jersey. The results look excellent tonight... unless your name rhymes with DUMP. Trumpanzee did the trick in Kentucky, a scorching red R+15 state... where the GOP lost the governor's mansion. Trump was there last night campaigning for his clone Matt Bevin and today Kentucky voters went to the polls and ignored Trump's pleas and retired Bevin. Andy Beshear won 711,955 (49.18%) to 707,297 (48.86%). Trump was in Fayette County last night (Lexington) and today Beshear won 65.1% of the vote there. In Jefferson County (Louisville) Beshear did even better-- 66.99% of the vote. And in Virginia, the GOP lost-- despite Pence practically camping out in the state-- control of both chambers of the legislature. The Senate looks like a 21-19 split in favor of the Democrats and the House should be at least 54 Democratic seats in the 100 seat chamber. The Democrats haven't controlled the House of Delegates in two decades! Tonight they won both chambers. Voter turnout, at least for Democrats, was superb-- and a good indication of what to expect one year from now. In Virginia Beach, the most hotly contested area of the state, around 96,000 voters turned out-- as opposed to 63,000 in the 2015 legislative elections. So... how does this look to you?

Kentucky was the most important of all the races to Trump and he and Pence spent a lot of time and political capital on trying to bolster the unpopular right-wing multimillionaire governor, Matt Bevin. Every Republican in the Senate has got to be rethinking their support for Trump right now. If he can't win in Kentucky, where exactly can he win?

Yesterday, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) predicted that about 31% of the state's 3,451,537 million eligible voters would take part in today's election. In 2015 it was 30.7%. That's how Republicans win. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that "Grimes, who is not seeking re-election because of term limits, said she was disappointed in the projected voter turnout. 'It’s simply not OK that only a small portion of Kentuckians will possibly elect our next constitutional officers,' she said. 'Our democracy depends on people showing up to the polls to make their voices heard. I challenge all registered voters to get up, get out and get loud and exercise their right to vote on Tuesday.' Grimes tracks absentee ballot totals as an indicator of final voter turnout. As of Monday, nearly 19,318 voters had voted in person on machines in county clerks’ offices or were sent absentee ballots, she said. About 8,169 of the 13,967 mail-in absentee ballots that have been issued had been returned."

Bevin could have never expected to be reelected on his own record. It was clear he was going to make it only on the basis of his adhesion to Trump. But it turned out not be be enough. If Trump couldn't save Bevin, who is he going to be able to save-- and we're talking about KENTUCKY! Last night Trump was in Lexington's Rupp Arena, ostensibly rallying the true believers for Bevin but, of course, talking about the only thing he ever talks about: himself... a stand-up routine that lasted an hour and twenty minutes. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was there as well, defending Trump more than Bevin. "Trump," reported Politico this morning, "did tout Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky ahead of his reelection bid Tuesday, but he also offered a post-impeachment playbook for his own reelection bid 365 days away."

A few minutes ago, the count in the Mississippi gubernatorial race was up to 87% of precincts counted, with Republican Tate Reeves leading right-wing quasi-Democrat Jim Hood 390,544 (52.79%) to 339,897 (45.94%), closer than it should have been and closer than anyone thought it would be. At least Trump can run around claiming responsibility for winning that one. But members of Congress will all know what the loss for Bevin means and understand the scope of the catastrophe-- for their party-- in Virginia.

The Democrats maintained the majority in the New Jersey Assembly, although losing some seats. The special Senate election for the seat Jeff Van Drew gave up when he went to Congress to pretend to be a Democrat while voting with the GOP, pitted a pathetic Van Drew clone, ultra-conservative Bob Andrzejczak, against Republican Mike Testa. Testa beat the fake Democrat 27,163 (53.47%) to 23,636 (46.53%). Do you think it will teach the Democratic Party to run real Democrats with real Democratic values instead of shlubs from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party? I don't.

Meanwhile... back in the loony bin:

The Likely Big Loser In Tomorrow's Elections: Donald J. Trumpanzee

I don't know much about Democratic strategist Kevin Walling other than he was one of the founders of-- and the first political director for-- the right-of-center Inside-the-beltway group No Labels-- and that he is often called upon by right-wing media to play the role of "the Democrat," particularly on Fox New, Fox Business News, Newsmax and the neo-Nazi One America News Network (OAN). His firm Hamburger Gibson Creative does work for non-progressive Democrats. Yesterday Walling penned an op-ed for The Hill, Democrats will win back the Senate majority in 2020, all thanks to President Trump. He asserts that if the election were held today, Trump would lose and McConnell would become Senate minority leader. He foresees Democratic wins in against Republican incumbents in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maine and North Carolina and possibly in Georgia as well as Democratic holds in New Hampshire and Michigan and possibly even Alabama.

How do we test out his theories? Well... we're going to learn a lot more about where the electorate is tomorrow-- specifically in Virginia, a swing state trending blue, New Jersey, a solid blue state, and 2 solid red states, Kentucky and Mississippi. Kentucky (R+15) and Mississippi (R+9) have statewide races. In 2016, Trump beat Hillary 700,714 (57.86%) to 485,131 (40.06%) in Mississippi and 1,202,971 (62.52%) to 628,854 (32.68%) in Kentucky. Let's start with Kentucky. With that kind of PVI, how does a Republican not win in a landslide? Watch Matt Bevin tomorrow. He may win, but not by much. He's widely disliked in the state-- including by Republicans, some of whom, like state Sen Dan Seum and Rep. Bill Woods, have endorsed his Beshear-- and the state's Attorney General, Andy Beshear (D), is well-liked and well-respected.





Bevin, a crooked multimillionaire, is out-spending Beshear but the Kentucky Education Association and the Kentucky State Fraternal Order of Police have both endorsed Beshear as have the state's two biggest newspapers, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader. Bevin has endorsements and active campaigning from Trump (including tonight in Lexington, where Bevin is likely to lose by a wide margin) and Pence. The two most recent public polls were done last month> Mason-Dixon shows a 46-46% dead-heat and Tagoz Market Research shows a big win for Beshear-- 55-36%. Trump has staked his reputation on this race. If Bevin loses tomorrow, expect Trump to go out of his mind.

The only thing that would make Mississippi newsworthy would be if Democrat Jim Hood actually beats Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. If that actually were to happen, Senate Republicans would start abandoning Trump for real and rallying around Mitt Romney. Hood has been serving as Mississippi's Attorney General since 2003-- and he keeps winning reelection by big margins-- so it's not like people don't know him. He's an NRA-supporting, anti-Choice fall-Democrats, but still a win by him would be nothing short of catastrophic for Trump. The most recent polling shows Reeves ahead, 46-43% with 9% undecided. Reeves has massively outspent Hood, $15,587,007.24 to $5,257,753.31 as of last week.Tonight Pence is headlining a rally in Biloxi for Reeves.





Yesterday the Washington Post pointed out that the old adage about all races being local is under assault in the Age of Trump, when all races are about Trump. Tim Craig and Seung Min Kim wrote that Democrats see the governors’ races as "an opportunity to prove that voters still want local leaders to prioritize issues of health and economic well-being in states that continue to rank among the poorest in the nation. Political strategists from both parties warn the Democrats’ issue-centric strategy comes with risks as partisan polarization creeps deeper into voters’ everyday lives."

“There are not local races anymore,” said Brad Chism, a Mississippi Democratic strategist who has been advising Hood. “Every doctor’s office, every gas station, every barber shop has a T.V. in it, and eight out of ten of those in Mississippi are airing Fox News … I am personally hopeful that local issues such as infrastructure, public education and transportation supersede this, but the thing about Trump is he just sucks up all the oxygen, every day.”

...[T]he impeachment inquiry “being on the front page of every newspaper has certainly been a rallying cry for a lot of conservatives in the state.” Though national polling has indicated an electorate almost evenly divided on impeachment, 65 percent of voters in Kentucky say they oppose efforts to impeach Trump and remove him from the White House, according to a Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey.

...But both Couvillon, a Republican, and Chism, the Mississippi Democratic strategist, caution that Trump’s strategy of trying to nationalize the governors’ races could backfire.

Despite Trump’s broad popularity in both states, Couvillon and Chism say Trump’s involvement could increase turnout among black voters who traditionally vote Democratic.

There are also tens of thousands of voters in both states who lean Republican in federal races but are still considered up for grabs in state elections. Democrats are fighting hard for those voters by focusing on transportation, education and health care, including Medicaid expansion, Chism noted.

In Kentucky, Beshear is betting on a similar strategy. Instead of talking about Trump or national political issues, Beshear says, he’s keeping his message simple.

“When you talk about public education, pensions, health care and jobs, they are good for every Kentucky family, and I believe we are tired of being divided,” Beshear said.

Deep State by Nancy Ohanian

In New Jersey, all 80 seats in the general assembly are up for grabs. Currently the Democrats have a 54-26 super-majority there and control the state Senate 26-14. Democrats have outspent Republicans by a wide margin and could actually gain one or two seats. The only state Senate election is for the seat Jeff Van Drew gave up went he went off the Congress to vote with the Republicans while pretending to be a Democrat. The incumbent, conservative Bob Andrzejczak, was appointed to fill the seat and has done everything possible to discourage Democrats from bothering to support him; tomorrow he faces Republican Testa.

The most important state to watch tomorrow, though, is Virginia where the Republicans are likely to lose their narrow control of both chambers of the state legislature. All 40 state Senate seats and all 100 House of Delegates seats are are for grabs.

In the last election, Democrats won 53.17% of the Delegates races but just 49 seats. The Republicans won 43.76% of the votes and 51 seats. Several districts have been redrawn by court order to mitigate the extreme gerrymandering and Democrats are expected to pick up several seats and win control of the House. The most red to blue flippable seats:

• HD-27- Republican Roxann Robinson won by 0.5% in 2017 and faces Larry Barnett in Chesterfield County.
• HD-28- Republican Bob Thomas, who won by 0.4% in 2017, was defeated by Paul Milde in the primary, who faces Joshua Cole (bad news)-- Stafford County and Fredericksburg.
• HD-30- Republican incumbent Nick Freitas screwed up and has to run as a write-in candidate against Democrat Ann Faulkner Ridgeway-- parts of Orange, Culpeper and Madison counties.
• HD-40- Longtime Republican incumbent Tim Hugo won by 0.4% in 2017 and faces Dan Helmer (D)-- parts Fairfax and Prince William counties.
• HD-61- Longtime GOP incumbent Riley Ingram is retiring in a swing district where Carrie Conyer (R) faces Lindsey Dougherty (D)-- parts of 5 counties: Mecklenburg, Amelia, Nottoway, Cumberland and Luneburg.
• HD-66- redrawn district should mean Democrat Sheila Bynum-Coleman will oust GOP incumbent Kirk Cox-- Chesterfield County plus Colonial Heights.
• HD-76- redrawn district gives Clint Jenkins a chance to beat Republican incumbent Chris Jones-- Suffolk and Chesapeake cities.
• HD-81- redrawn district gives Len Myers a chance to beat Republican incumbent Barry Knight in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake cities.
• HD-83- redrawn district should mean Democrat Nancy Guy will oust GOP incumbent Chris Stolle-- Virginia Beach and Norfolk cities.
• HD-84- Independent Russell Braddy may spoil Republican Glenn Davis's reelection and allow Karen Mallard (D) to slip in in Virginia Beach.
• HD-91- redrawn district plus retiring incumbent should mean Democrat Martha Mugler will beat Republican Colleen Holmes Holcomb-- Hampton and Poquoson cities plus a piece of York County.
• HD-94- redrawn district (+ a strong Libertarian challenger) should mean Democrat Shelly Simonds will oust GOP incumbent David Yancey-- Newport News.

Currently the state Senate has 21 Republicans and 19 Democrats. This one also looks good for a flip tomorrow. It looks like the Democrats can pick off 4 Republican-held seats, all of which were won by Gov. Ralph Northam (D) 2 years ago and by Hillary in 2016. These are the seats where I expect to see Trump's raging disapproval numbers drag the Republicans down to ignominious defeat tomorrow:

• SD-7- Incumbent Frank Wagner (R) is retiring and both Hillary and Northam subsequently won the district. Expect to see Delegate Cheryl Turpin (D) beat Jennifer Kiggans (R)-- Virginia Beach with a bit of Norfolk.
• SD-10- Glen Sturtevant (R) is a weak incumbent in a district Hillary won in landslide. Ghazala Hashmi (D) should win tomorrow-- Chesterfield County, Richmond and Powhatan County.
• SD-12- Democrat Debra Rodman should oust Siobhan Dunnavant (R) in this anti-Trump area of Henrico County plus a bit of Hanover County.
• SD-13- Incumbent Richard Black (R) is retiring in a district Hillary won by over 8 points and Democrat John Bell is likely to beat Geary Higgins (R)-- parts of Loudoun and Prince William counties.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam Owes Eric Stamps An Endorsement Announcement

Eric Stamps-- too progressive for the governor?

Ralph Northam was probably the most conservative, Republican-friendly Democrat in the Virginia state Senate when he served between 2007 and 2013, at which time he was elected lieutenant governor. He admits that before being elected to the Senate he had voted for George W. Bush twice. Almost immediately after he was elected to the Senate, he came within minutes-- literally-- of switching to the GOP and flipping control of the chamber. He stayed in the party after the Democrats assured them they wouldn't try to pass any progressive legislation. He's always managed to be judged the lesser of two evil in all his electoral contests. Great way to select our leaders!

On Friday, Northam, now governor, was down in Danville, where there is a hot legislative race going on between an old boy, right-wing GOP incumbent, Danny Marshall, and Democratic challenger Eric Stamps who is far more progressive than, not only Marshall but also Northam. The governor was down there to make an economic development announcement and he tacitly endorsed the Republican: "I want to recognize two of my friends. I've been in Richmond for almost 10 years and I’ve had some great friends and great relationships. And you have two very fine Delegates and senators. Delegate Danny Marshall, thank you so much for being here this morning. Thank you for your leadership. He’s there for the right reasons. He does great work for Virginia and his constituents. And Frank Ruff, Frank and I go back a number of years in the senate and you don’t find any better."

The woman running for Ruff's seat is an African American sort of middle-of-the-road Democrat, Virginia Smith, and although unhappy with what Northam said, she isn't talking about it publicly. Stamps has been-- bigly. He's the Blue America-endorsed candidate for that seat and I spoke with him over the weekend. He reminded me that Marshall has voted against common sense gun reform, against women’s rights, against the Equal Rights Amendment, against environmental reforms, against maternity leave, against worker’s rights and that he opposes raising the minimum wage and backs taking away healthcare from working families. The 2020 legislative thermometer on the right will allow you to contribute to Eric Stamps' campaign for the election one week from tomorrow. (And no, it isn't too late. Eric needs this money for his get out the vote team and it can make a real difference on election day.)

Anyway, Eric was offended that the Democratic governor of the state come down to his district (HD-14) and played kissy-kissy with his conservative Republican opponent who works against the interests of working families in the area. Eric complained to Northam's office, which claimed the governor was just being friendly and that, of course, he hopes all Democrats win, never even mentioning Eric by name. Northam should immediately endorse Eric Stamps-- by name-- and if he really wanted to be a mensch, he'd do a radio ad for Eric on some of the local stations. It could undo some of the damage he's already done.

Virginia Elections-- Early Voting Is... Now-- Will Trump Toxicity Help Flip Both Houses?

Most bigoted smear campaign of the year in being run by Republican Richard Stuart (l) against Qasim Rashid (r)

-by Fergie Reid, Jr.

As November 5th-- Election Day-- approaches in Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, and New Jersey, Virginia Democrats can flip their General Assembly by re-electing all of their (D) House and Senate incumbents, and by winning a minimum of 2 Republican HDs and 1 Republican Senate district.

But, we don’t want "minimums"; we’re playing for "maximums," right? Virginia Dems are challenging 43 GOP delegates and 17 GOP senators. The "really smart," highly paid Democratic Party consultants-- similar to the Oracles who brought you President Hillary and the reelection of Florida Senator Bill Nelson, etc.-- have focused on the 8 -10 House districts and 4 - 6 Senate districts, which the "consensus-- common wisdom-- group think committee" has deemed, "the most flippable." Remember how brilliantly they decided now-Delegate Lee Carter could never flip the 50th district, ignoring his race... until he was being sworn in?

This kind of "strategery" is... soooooo frustrating; let me count the ways:

• It’s anti-WAVE generating - i.e., A WAVE MITIGATOR;
• it suppresses activist energy;
• it suppresses turnout;
• it depresses rural party building efforts;
• you get the idea: it’s bad, stupid, asinine, idiotic, timid, passive...

GO BIG, OR GO HOME.

8 Virginia Senate districts are super-"flippable." 5 additional Virginia Senate districts are ripe to significantly over perform-- and if not flip this cycle... hey there is another one too, for long term planners. 1 of these 5 is arguably the most important and impactful race of this 2019 Va. cycle: U.S. Army Colonel Herb Jones (D) vs. Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment (R).

Additionally, 4 very rural Republican senators are being challenged by courageous Democratic team players; that totals 17 "challenger" races.

The "Received Wisdom"

Order of “Flippability” is as follows:

The “A” Group:

#1. Open - SD 13- John Bell (D) v. (this one is a formality only) - Geary Higgin (R)
#2. SD 10- Ghazala Hashmi (D) v. Senator Glen Sturtevant (R)
#3. Open- SD 7- Cheryl Turpin (D) v. Jen Kiggans (R)
#4. SD 12- Debra Rodman (D) v. Senator Siobhan Dunnavant (R)
#5. SD 8- Missy Cotter Smasal (D) v. Senator Bill DeSteph (R)
#6. SD 11- Amanda Pohl (D) v. Senator Amanda Chase (R)
#7. SD 17- Amy Laufer (D) v. Senator Bryce Reeves (R)
#8. SD 28 - Qasim Rashid (D) v. Senator Richard Stuart (R)

The “B” Group:

#9. SD 3- Herb Jones (D) v. Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment (R)
#10. SD 27- Ronnie Ross (D) v. Jill Vogel (R)
#11. SD 15- Virginia Smith (D) v. Senator Frank Ruff (R)
#12. SD 19- Flo Ketner (D) v. Senator Dave Suetterlein (R)
#13. - SD 4- Stan Scott (D) v. Senator Ryan McDougle (R)


The “C” Group:

#14. SD 24- Annette Hyde (D) v. Senator Emmett Hanger (R)
#15. SD 26- April Moore (D) v. Senator Mark Obenshain (R)
#16. SD 14- Becky Raveson (D) v. Senator John Cosgrove (R)
#17. SD 22- Dakota Claytor (D) v. Senator Mark Peake (R)

All of these people deserve our heartfelt thanks and support, for doing the hard work of candidacy. Unfortunately, only Missy Cotter Smasal, Amanda Pohl and Amy Laufer get focused attention from the Democratic Senate Caucus, the State Party, and the "Donor Class." DWT and Blue America have endorsed, and are solidly supporting Herb Jones and Qasim Rashid.

A wave election will require a big turnout. A big turnout will be generated by sharing the wonderful stories of all seventeen of these brave candidates-- whipping up the grassroots supporters in each district-- including the underlying HD, BoS, School Board, Soil & Water, and Constitutional Office campaigns therein. It’s a team sport. Play like a team. Silos are for grain, not campaigns.

A 60 - 40 Democratic House Majority is very possible. A 28 - 12 Democratic Senate Majority is achievable. A very big turnout is absolutely necessary to reach these goals. Election Day is November 5th. The Virginia voter registration deadline is October 15th. Early voting has begun. One vote matters. Ask Shelly Simond (HD 94); in 2017 she lost by 0 votes.

The Most Important LGBTQ Election Of 2019 Is Coming Up Six Weeks From Today

On Sunday, The Advocate published a feature by Michael Keegan, president of People for the American Way, The Most Important LGBTQ Race in 2019 Is Danica Roem's. "With the presidential primary campaigns in full swing-- and the first openly LGBTQ major-party presidential candidate very much in the mix-- it’s tempting to think the most momentous political fights of our lives lie ahead in 2020." wrote Keegan. "But there is an enormously consequential off-year fight going on right now in Virginia, and it’s one we all need to get behind."

It’s happening in Virginia House District 13, where Danica Roem is fighting hard to hold on to her seat against a well-funded right wing challenger. Her race is one of the most competitive in the state this cycle. Danica made history and headlines in 2017 when she won her election to the Virginia House of Delegates and became the first openly transgender person to serve on any state legislature. She won by taking out an incumbent who described himself as Virginia’s “chief homophobe.” The right wing wants revenge and will spend what it takes to get it. What happens in her race this November will reverberate across the country, with implications for the LGBTQ community and for the broader narrative about what’s happening in American politics right now.

Danica’s 2017 campaign inspired the first rainbow wave in the 2018 midterms. Meanwhile at the state level, her win was part of a broader shift in political power in which full control of the legislature hinged upon a single vote. Republican control of the Virginia legislature is hanging by a thread this year. A win by Danica is not only a key element of flipping the Virginia House and the entire state legislature from red to blue, it’s a key part of setting the stage for 2020-- just like the victories of diverse and progressive candidates in Virginia two years ago were curtain-raisers for big wins in the historic 2018 election.

By any measure Danica has earned reelection. She is a dedicated public servant with a laser focus on serving her constituents. She has campaigned on a platform to fix the region’s infrastructure. She cares about her constituents and the things that matter in their lives; she played a major role in the Virginia Medicaid expansion that provides vital coverage to hundreds of thousands of residents. But none of this insulates her from the transphobic hostility that motivates her opponent and many of that opponent’s deep-pocketed financial backers.

Danica’s opponent Kelly McGinn has a long record of anti-LGBTQ extremism. She has compared marriage equality to “morally repugnant practices” such as slavery, described LGBTQ parenthood as “absurd” and “harmful to children,” and even tried to justify her transphobia as a rationale for opposing the Equal Rights Amendment’s ratification in the state. It is all sadly reminiscent of the campaign of Danica’s 2017 opponent Bob Marshall, architect of Virginia’s shameful anti-trans bathroom bill. On the campaign trail, Marshall refused to recognize Danica’s gender identity, claiming that she “defied the laws of nature.”

Kelly McGinn is every bit the bigot that Marshall was. McGinn’s campaign website is slickly designed to appeal to voters who may not know much about her, describing her as a political moderate who is dedicated to family values. But she continues to accept financial contributions from far-right groups and donors that traffic either overtly or covertly in anti-LGBTQ hate-- like the Eagle Forum, which was founded by anti-LGBTQ activist Phyllis Schlafly. Anti-LGBTQ forces in the state know exactly who McGinn is. And they are all in.

And this is why we have to stand up. Our community is intimately familiar with the damaging, real-life consequences wrought by the Trump administration’s anti-LGBTQ agenda. When a candidate like McGinn emerges and espouses similar views and rhetoric, it’s paramount that we do all we can to make sure such candidates are defeated. This is especially true when defeating that candidate will send a strong message beyond a single district and a single year-- as the outcome of this race, in this critical run-up to 2020, most certainly will.

Our community rose to the occasion for her historic candidacy in 2017, and in this important election year, we can’t sit this one out. The organization I lead, People For the American Way, was deeply involved in supporting Danica two years ago, and we are doing it again because Danica is far more than a symbol, she is a proven progressive leader who is making Virginia a progressive state. We’re running ads, knocking on doors, organizing national phone banks, whatever we can do to help her win in what is going to be a tight race.

This is another all-hands-on deck moment for all of us. It’s an opportunity to make history once again and to rebuke hate in our politics, to stand up for Danica Roem at a pivotal moment for our community and our country. This is one we have to win.

Nearly all the state legislative candidates endorsed by Blue America so far this year are running in Virginia. That's not serendipity. Winning back the House of Delegates and the state Senate in Virginia are crucially important-- and it can be done without having to hold any noses and vote for any conservative lesser-of-two-evils candidates. Click on the Blue America 2020 legislative thermometer on the right. Those are all solid progressives you'll find there.

Ungerrymandering The States-- One By One

The governor of New Jersey is Phil Murphy, a Democrat. Both Houses of the state legislature are controlled by Democrats, the Senate 26-14 and the Assembly 54-26. There's just one New Jersey congressional district that elected a Republican in 2018. It would be easy as pie for New Jersey Democrats to gerrymander the map to make Chris Smith's 4th CD go from an R+8 district to a much more winnable R+1 or 2 or even an even district that a Democratic candidate could easily win. And that is exactly what they were planning on doing-- until Eric Holder shamed them into not doing it (according to Eric Holder).

This week, Time Magazine published an essay by Phillip Elliott, The Battle Line To Draw The Battle Lines. Today Democrats are doing what Republicans have long done-- investing millions off dollars into winning state legislative seats so that they'll have a hand in redrawing post-census district boundaries that will last for the next decade. The fight gets hot in less than two months when Virginia votes on all their legislative seats. Elliott reports that there are 91 Democratic candidates for the commonwealth’s 100 house races on Nov. 5, and 35 senate hopefuls for the chamber’s 40 spots, which include three senate districts that voted for Hillary Clinton for President in 2016 but are currently represented by Republicans. 'They are running to build the party,' house caucus executive director Trevor Southerland says."

The state Senate has 21 Republicans and 19 Democrats and the House of Delegates has 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats. The governor and Lt. Governor are Democrats. It should be easy to win enough seats to flip both chambers, right? Well, the Republicans are playing the same game-- working to flip Democratic seats and working to protect their own incumbents. Please consider contributing by clicking on the legislative thermometer on the right, especially in the Virginia races.

There are virtually no races in Virginia more important this cycle than the one to reelect Lee Carter in the House of Delegates and the one to replace Trumpist Richard Stuart with Qasim Rashid in the state Senate. This morning, Rashid, a human rights attorney, told us that "Free and fair elections mandate that we have districts that are just and honest. It is a mockery of democracy when districts are drawn to keep politicians in power. We must return voting power to citizens."

Lee Carter is the best member of the House and the Republicans are targeting him while the Democratic establishment ignores his race. This Democratic Socialist is fighting for working families, not for party establishments. "The legislative elections in Virginia in 2019 and the rest of the country in 2020 will determine the direction of the country for the next decade," he told me today. "The stakes are too high for anyone to sit this one out." I agree.

The path toward Republican dominance at the state level began more than three decades ago, when Democrats, in the wake of Jimmy Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980, focused their energy on presidential politics in the 1984 cycle. The current dynamic dates back to 2010, when Karl Rove wrote a Wall Street Journal column laying the groundwork for what came to be called the Redistricting Majority Project (REDMAP). The RSLC’s REDMAP program recruited and funded state-level candidates aggressively. REDMAP spent $30 million to the DLCC’s $8 million that year. The effort netted GOP total control of 11 legislatures and a trifecta in nine additional states. In turn, the party started drawing congressional districts it liked.

Republicans still start with a leg up in the battle for the states in 2020. The GOP controls 52% of seats in all state legislatures, with majorities in 62% of state legislative chambers and total control of state government in 22 states, to Democrats’ 14. But many of the chambers have narrow GOP edges. Democrats stand to pick up majorities in seven chambers-- including those in Minnesota, Arizona and Virginia-- if they can win 19 specific races.

Meanwhile, the gains Democrats have made in recent years may be difficult to defend. President Donald Trump was a liability for Republicans in 2018, when he wasn’t on the ballot and his approval sat at 40% in Gallup’s final pre-election survey. But Trump could wind up helping GOP candidates in 2020, when the party hopes his massive political machine will boost fortunes of candidates all the way down the ballot.

It’s also possible that existing Democratic-led statehouses overstep their mandates and provoke a backlash. In typically blue Illinois, for example, lawmakers declared abortion a fundamental right, no matter what the Supreme Court may say. When Republicans in the Colorado statehouse objected to the pace of change under Democratic control, they raised procedural hurdles and demanded the measures be read aloud. Democrats responded by having five computers read a 2,023-page bill simultaneously–so quickly the text was unintelligible. The issue went to court, where the Republicans won.

The party that wins control of Richmond in November and other state capitals in 2020 has decisions to make. Republicans may want to cluster African-American voters into one district to make the rest of the area easier to win. Democrats may want to spread those voters out more evenly. In Northern Virginia, both parties may want to minimize the number of seats that have to buy ad time in the expensive D.C. market. Armed with enough data, it’s possible to draw lines that enhance the odds of winning again and again. “We were so pleased as Democrats that we won this Congress,” Post says of the 2018 elections. “But the truth is, it’s just a rental.”

Speaking of which... late yesterday, the New Yorker blew the whistle on a racist GOP gerrymanderer, Thomas Hofeller, who died just over a year ago. Before dying he trained lots of other Republican racists in his secrets. The New Yorker examined 70,000 of his files and years of his e-mails proving, that among other things, the North Carolina district boundaries were specifically drawn to disadvantage African-Americans, which even the current Supreme Court agrees is a no-no.

Hofeller’s files include dozens of intensely detailed studies of North Carolina college students, broken down by race and cross-referenced against the state driver’s-license files to determine whether these students likely possessed the proper I.D. to vote. The studies are dated 2014 and 2015, the years before Hofeller helped Republicans in the state redraw its congressional districts in ways that voting-rights groups said discriminated on the basis of race. North Carolina Republicans said that the maps discriminated based on partisanship but not race. Hofeller’s hard drive also retained a map of North Carolina’s 2017 state judicial gerrymander, with an overlay of the black voting-age population by district, suggesting that these maps-- which are currently at the center of a protracted legal battle-- might also be a racial gerrymander.

Other files provide new details about Hofeller’s work for Republicans across the country. Hofeller collected data on the citizen voting-age population in North Carolina, Texas, and Arizona, among other states, as far back as 2011. Hofeller was part of a Republican effort to add a citizenship question to the census, which would have allowed political parties to obtain more precise citizenship data ahead of the 2020 redistricting cycle. State legislative lines could then have been drawn based on the number of citizen voters, which Hofeller believed would make it easier to pack Democrats and minorities into fewer districts, giving an advantage to Republicans... Additional files document his work in Mississippi, Alabama, and Virginia, among other states.

E-mails also connect Hofeller to redistricting efforts in Florida. Top Republican officials in the state have denied that they played any official role in drawing the state’s legislative and congressional districts in 2011. A 2010 state constitutional amendment barred partisan gerrymandering in Florida. E-mails show that Hofeller communicated with and visited top G.O.P. political operatives in Florida in 2011. The operatives helped organize or draw state legislative and congressional maps that matched the districts that were later enacted. The operatives insisted, at a trial, that drawing the maps was only a hobby. A Florida judge found that argument unconvincing, concluding that the G.O.P. conducted a stealth redistricting operation that snuck partisan maps into the public process and made a “mockery” of the state’s constitutional amendments.

...E-mails also show that Hofeller worried that his redistricting handiwork could be undone by an anti-Trump wave in 2016 that handed state legislatures to Democrats. On September 6, 2016, a Republican lawyer e-mailed Hofeller a story from The Hill about Democratic efforts down-ballot. Hofeller’s reply: “Yes, maybe our redistricting ace card will be ‘trumped’ to use a bridge analogy.”

In an August, 2016, e-mail to a consultant to California Senate Republicans, Hofeller expressed frustration about Trump’s hold over the Party, and confidence that his maps would survive any blue wave. “Meanwhile the GOP continues to bury its collective heads in the sand or in other higher places. Trump is only a product to this stupidity,” he wrote. “Do not worry about us in North Carolina in terms of redistricting. Even in the coming political bloodbath we should still maintain majority control of the General Assembly. The Governor cannot veto a redistricting map, so the Democrats hope is that the Obamista judiciary will come to their rescue.”

E-mails suggest that Hofeller’s commitment to the Republican cause never wavered. The day after receiving a grim prognosis for lung cancer and a kidney tumor, Hofeller wrote a friend that he didn’t plan to slow down. “I still have time to bedevil the Democrats with more redistricting plans before I exit,” he wrote, on May 21st. “Look my name up on the Internet and you can follow the damage.”

Democrats have neglected state legislatures and seen Republicans put themselves into position to redrawn districts and take control of Congress with far fewer votes than Democrats have won. Let me give you some recent examples. In 2012 John Boehner retained the Speaker's gavel even though 59,645,531 voters (48.8%) backed Democratic candidates and just 58,228,253 voters (47.6%) backed Republican candidates, The Republicans wound up with 234 seats and the Democrats with 201. That's how gerrymandering works. And even when Democrats do well, they have to do really well to match the GOP. Like we just saw, the Republicans won 234 seats by taking 47.6% of the vote. In the big anti-red wave of 2018, there were 60,572,245 voters (53.5%) who picked Democrats and just 50,861,970 (44.8%) and yet Democrats only won 235 seats, only one more than the GOP won in 2012. That's got to be fixed. That why we're asking you to help the progressive Virginia candidates here.