We’d better start realizing that these days, all politics is national. People aren’t as emotionally tied to where they live as they used to be.
Liberals want a strong centralized Federal government, and will vote for the D, no matter who they are.
I plan to contact my county Republican Party office to volunteer for the 2026 election.
It seems that the polarization is going to intensify to an extreme degree in the next year or two. Red states will retain their “R” numbers while blue states will gobble up red districts through unfettered election fraud.
We all know the game.
Good job TN!!!
And the author is damn right about GA- we have two bright blue rinos running things down here. Kemp and RaffsenJackass won’t do a damn thing about Fulton County, the dominion machines and Stacy Abrams, all three make this poor state stink to NY.
The win is good but the trend is not.
“With 99% of votes counted, Van Epps’ lead was around 9 percentage points. The previous Republican who held the seat won by 21 points last year.”
For the record:
TN CD7 is R+10 ....not R+22...
...that was Trump and can’t easily be compared to anything. One of a kind.
Special elections tend to be tests first of the candidates and campaign organizations involved. Assuming that nether side drops the ball, the demographics of the district and larger political environment are then usually determinative.
For the Democrats, the lesson of the Tennessee 5th election will be that they are gaining on the GOP and that it is hard to win by running candidates with flawed backgrounds. For the GOP in Congress, I hope that they realize that they are not doing a good enough job to inspire their base.
The media were all over this claiming the election was “very close” and a “loss” for Trump.
Typical headline:
“GOP and Trump cling to victory in ‘too close’ Tennessee special election after Democrats fightback”
With 99% of the vote counted, Van Epps won 54 percent of the vote and Behn received 45 percent.
That is not “close” or “very close” - not the 22 point victory Trump achieved there, but this is an off-year.
Still, Republicans should never let their guard down.
>> That, of course, will not stop the thumb suckers who already have their thumbs out and are ready to point blame.
Plenty of those thumbsuckers in view on FR last night... in fact, there’s a few right here on this thread!
I am hoping the GOP has learned to reduce voter fraud like 2024 and will apply it to 2026. We lost four tight senate seats in 2022 we should have won.
i see media is downplaying win - probably trying to make us
forget how they told us it was “close.” well they told us for 3 months Mamdani was a shoo-in - and it worked. but not
this time. 8 points is not “neck and neck.” glad Rs held this seat and hope this shows Gruters can deliver turnout.
for a special election this was a more than respectable win for party in power.
And
"Regarding the passivity, it’s not the voters who are passive so much as the Republican leadership, starting at the top."
Isn't this a cognitive dissonance? At least some of the Republican leadership is elected, and they WILL win future elections.
You can't receive good Republican leadership if you reward them for betraying you.
I think this is a big time cognitive dissonance. Look at how many times Kentucky voters rewarded Mitch McConnell for attacking conservatives instead of spending more time attacking Democrats. We see this cognitive dissonance all over the country.
The PVI (Partisan Voting Index) for this district is +10 Republicans. The vote outcome was +9 Republican after the Dems sunk millions of scarce dollars into it. I’m calling it a win.
My take away was the ridiculously low turn out. Look at how few people voted... that to me it terrifying. Our country is ripe for a color revolution because people are not exercising their agency... dear lord... the way to avoid a civil war is to actually use the power you have and the American population is so demoralized that very few do. On a happier note. There were 1 million ballots available that the democrats didn’t even try to steal. Make it make sense.
I have no idea what p/p[ givyf means.
This year, like most off year elections; the Ds outspent the Rs by almost 2 to 1. They do this to control the narrative. From where I sit, there is no large groundswell for a change in direction unlike in 2024.
However, there is still ample time for the Rs to screw this up.