7. Red wave in Alabama is bigger than most expected — ALGOP adds seats to supermajorities
— A bloodbath for Alabama Democrats whose huge turnout yielded roughly the same number of votes as the party received in the 2017 special U.S. Senate election. Alabama Republicans swept in all statewide constitutional officers and judicial candidates on the ballot, and they also rendered “yes” verdicts on all of the Republican legislature’s constitutional amendments.
— Most shockingly, the ALGOP strengthened their supermajorities by gaining one seat in the Alabama Senate, making it now 27-8, and five seats in the Alabama House of Representatives, making it now 77-28.
6. Missing from all election talk is the fact that Republicans still control most legislatures
— Most of the coverage of the midterms focuses on the Democrats capturing the House and Republicans holding on the Senate with moderate gains. Missing from all of this is that Democrats seized six legislative chambers while leaving the GOP in control in 30 states, which is down one.
— The six bodies that changed control is far below the historical average and significantly less than the last wave election of 2010 Republicans took 24 legislative chambers.
5. Democrats push more post-election stupidity with talk of a “popular Senate vote“
— Some in the media and their Democrats don’t understand that the reason they got more votes in the Senate races yet lost seats is that Democrats is because they were defending a total of 26 states, while Republicans were defending just nine.
— Even the Washington Post found this to be silly because they actually won 63 percent of the Senate seats up for election while only winning just 55 percent of the vote
4. Failed Alabama Democrat candidate Mallory Hagan attacks failed Democrat power structure
— The Democratic loser in Alabama’s third congressional district contest was addressing supporters after a 28-point beatdown to Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks) when she told them that the current Alabama Democratic leadership did not have “your best interests at heart.”
— She told her supporters, “I told you that I would fight for you and I will continue to do so because there are people who are in control of the Democratic Party who do not have your best interests at heart.” She added, “There are people who are in control of the Democratic Party who say they are fighting for you, who say they are standing up for you, who say they care about you and your communities. And yet, they shit on Democratic candidates left and right, excuse my language.”
3. Trump takes on losers in his own party for some reason, says he is glad Democrats won so they can make deals
— Soon to be former Representatives Mia Love, Barbara Comstock and Mike Coffman caught the president’s ire for not seeking his help in the 2018 midterms at a rambling press conference where he didn’t mention the folks he supported who lose. The conference also featured a weird confrontation with CNN’s Jim Acosta where Trump called him “a terrible person.”
— Speaking on a potential bipartisan deal-making posture, Trump said, “Now we have a much easier path because the Democrats will come to us with a plan for infrastructure, a plan for health care, a plan for whatever they’re looking at, and we’ll negotiate.”
2. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is out, his chief of staff is in — Seemingly baseless speculation continues about the Mueller probe
— Sessions and President Trump have had a contentious relationship ever since the former Alabama senator rightly recused himself from the Russia/Trump investigation because he was on the campaign. Trump never forgave him and Sessions never cared.
— Alabama’s elected officials lavished praise upon Sessions. Former Alabama Senator Luther Strange wants him to run for Senate, while conservative commentators attacked Sessions for not being loyal enough to Trump
1. Alabama’s 2018 election results doom Senator Doug Jones in 2020
— Jones and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox got roughly the same number of votes, but Republicans who stayed home for Moore in 2017 showed up for Republicans in the midterms and crushed Democrats in Alabama by over 300,000 votes.
— As if the results weren’t bad enough, recently resigned former AG Jeff Session is reportedly considering running for his old seat. But many question if the rank and file Republican voters will accept him after his dust-ups with Trump.
