Late, but I just saw this ad. Kinda surreal. Wasn’t Cruz taking heat for not really being able to speak Spanish before, and came back with some obviously rehearsed quote? So now he’s attacking O’Rourke for doing a better job at playing the white Latino guy than he did himself?

Cruz is a heavy fav, but O’Rourke +10 is a lock. Cruz won the seat +16 at the height of Tea Party mania and outspent the D challenger 7.5M to 100K. Beto got 3x as many votes in the primary as the last D, and is probably going to have at least a comparable amount of money to spend.

Anecdotally, I moved to the TX border area about this time two years ago and saw very little political yard signs and the like. A smattering of Trump stuff, no Clinton, but just very little in general. I’m seeing Beto stuff all over the place already in the same places now. Cruz is going to get crushed in the border counties that were light blue in 2016, IMO. Dunno if there’s enough turnout for it to matter though.

I don’t currently know anyone who openly supports Cruz in Texas, including all the trump voters.

It will be interesting. I remain hopeful but realistic. Cruz will most likely win, but I think it will be very close. I consider Cruz one of the most dangerous politicians out there. He lost some of his horror potential by his presidential run, but he is still a horrible human being. He embarrasses me as a Texan and that is saying a lot given the various elected officials we have had here over last 35 years.

I was at the march Saturday in Austin, great turnout, lots of Beto shirts. If only the rest of the state would move to this century.

Also an Alex Jones dude asking people "what's it like to be the head of a cult?" as they marched by. Fun times.

‘Clueless’ Star Stacey Dash Withdraws From Congressional Race

Damn, I was looking forward to the LOLs with this one

In Texas, Ted Cruz Is Facing an Unusual Challenge: A Formidably Financed Democrat

Mr. O’Rourke, a former punk-rock bassist and El Paso city councilman, has raised $13.2 million in the race so far, and outraised Mr. Cruz in three of four Federal Election Commission reporting periods. (Mr. Cruz has not yet reported his latest fund-raising.) In the first three months of 2018, Mr. O’Rourke raised $6.7 million, more than any other Democratic Senate candidate in the country in that period.

...

But political analysts say Mr. O’Rourke’s chances are a long-shot at best, despite his fund-raising skills. He remains unknown to many voters, even as he has kept up a hectic travel schedule and visited 228 of the state’s 254 counties. In the Democratic primary last month, Mr. O’Rourke lost a number of counties to two lesser-known Democratic rivals, including the Hispanic-dominated border area of the Rio Grande Valley, parts of East Texas and the northern Panhandle region.

...

Democrats have not won any statewide offices since 1994.

...

The issue often comes down to voter turnout. In last month’s primary elections, Democrats surged to the polls in record-breaking numbers. More Democrats voted early this year than voted early in the presidential election year of 2016. In the end, though, they were still outvoted: A total of 1.5 million votes were cast by Texas Republicans in the primary, compared to 1 million by Democrats.

...

Mr. O’Rourke’s fund-raising success is an outgrowth of a campaign driven by social media, which has refused to accept money from political action committees.

Republicans say they are not worried about an upset but are certainly paying attention. They point to the 2002 race for governor, when the Democrat, Tony Sanchez, a Laredo oil executive, spent $67 million and lost to Mr. Perry.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...arnburner.html




Liberal wins a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat

Solid.

south carolina

https://twitter.com/ForecasterEnten/...48735191003136

Positivity, the hidden strength of the Republican Party.

It will never cease to amaze me that anyone actually believes there is a meaningful number of "far left" people in the US.

What matters to him is that we are really ****ing far from Scott Walker.

Former Democrat governor has a double digit lead on the Republican for Tennessee's senate seat

https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...urn/485649002/

This is ****ing amazing. I knew Blackburn was trash, but I was totally unaware that people in TN were aware that Blackburn was trash.

*probably should be is, not was

You should check out her Facebook page. She gets absolutely trashed on every post. I don't even know why she keeps it up. Probably some campaign strategist insisting that she needs a social media presence ldo, but I don't think that's actually a positive when literally everyone hates you.

this is indeed great. i remember in the lead up to the healthcare voting she'd always come on the morning news shows to talk about how taking away everyone's healthcare was going to give them more choice. a truly despicable deplorable.

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/983478444435570688

^ related, seems like one of the major factors in the midterms is going to be how stuff like this plays. I hadn't read this article yet but noticed it yesterday: Republicans Seize on Impeachment for Edge in 2018 Midterms

Basically, "show up and vote, deplorables, or else you'll let the Dems impeach Trump". Not sure if stuff like this is maybe a useful distraction for Republicans instead of just talking about policy and all the ways the GOP + Trump are hurting the country.

Politico: Rick Scott Has 'Unlimited Money' gonna have to give til it hurts this cycle br0s

Meh. If Nelson can't hold Florida even considering the disparity in spending, Dems are definitely not doing well in places like Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota too so it's unlikely to be a tipping point race (not even considering this would mean getting blown out in Texas/Tennessee/Missouri/etc.).

My intuition tells me that the higher the profile of the election, the less of a handicap fundraising becomes. You already get tons of free publicity.

The GOP will come up with some evil plan to counter this. We can't have Americans flagrantly exercising their right to vote.

Inside Puerto Rico’s Plan to Influence the Midterm Elections

You gotta watch this

While this is about the House and not the Senate (do we need/want separate threads?), Frank Bruni previews some districts in Texas where Dems are mounting credible challengers