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GOP Sweeps Congressional Special Elections
Hotair ^
| 05/13/2020
| Jazz Shaw
Posted on 05/13/2020 9:29:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Even with all of the lockdown restrictions, voters somehow managed to make it to the polls yesterday for two special elections and the Republican candidates appear to have locked both of them down (if youll pardon the phrase). The first one was in Wisconsin and the result wasnt much of a surprise. In the Seventh District, the race to replace the now-retired Sean Duffy is projected to go to Tom Tiffany. The 7th is a fairly solidly conservative district and Tiffany had garnered the endorsement of President Trump. (Associated Press)
Tom Tiffany, a state senator endorsed by President Donald Trump, easily won a special congressional election Tuesday in a heavily conservative, rural Wisconsin district, cheering Republicans even as Democrats argued the victory revealed vulnerabilities for the president among his base.
Tiffanys win over Democrat Tricia Zunker in northern Wisconsins 7th District comes in the states second election amid the coronavirus pandemic the past five weeks. Tiffany will replace former reality TV star Sean Duffy, a Republican who retired in September. The district has been vacant since Duffys retirement.
Trump won Wisconsin by less than a point, but carried the district by 20 points, in 2016. Tiffanys win over Zunker was about 6 points less than that, based on preliminary results.
The Democrats are trying to argue that Tiffanys margin of victory (14 points!) is a sign that Trump is in trouble. If that sounds like some magical thinking to you, thats because it is. Trump carried the district by 20 points in 2016, but that was an election that produced near-record turnout. Special elections are notorious for lower turnouts in normal times. Special elections during a pandemic are even more problematic. The margin of error always goes up when turnout is low, so this one appears to be well within the range you might expect.
The other race was at least somewhat more interesting. Californias 25th district seat was vacated last year when Katie Hill (of throuple fame) stepped down amid a scandal involving inappropriate sexual relations with one or more staffers. Republican Mike Garcia has a double-digit lead this morning over Democrat Christy Smith. This one is generating some headlines because its the first time that the GOP has flipped a blue seat in California in a very long time.
Thats not really a full picture of the story, however. This was a traditionally red district and Hills election in 2018 was really something of an outlier during a blue wave. Hill was the first Democrat to win in the 25th since the 1992 election following the redrawing of the district maps. So we did see what would technically be described as a flip of the seat, but this appears to be more of a return to normalcy in the 25th than any sort of sea change.
What, if anything, this portends for November remains to be seen. If were going to return to something approaching normalcy by the end of the summer and general election turnout is fairly typical, were going to have a tight race on our hands. But if the country is still almost entirely focused on the pandemic, keep your eyes open for some very squirrely results. As both Ed Morrissey and I have discussed in the past, most other issues normally being debated will very likely be low on the priority list for voters. Donald Trump is going to be facing a referendum on how well he handled the coronavirus pandemic and, as a result, how that impacts the economy and the employment situation. And the GOPs chances of holding onto their Senate majority will likely be bound to Trumps fortunes at the hip.
TOPICS: California; Wisconsin; U.S. Congress
KEYWORDS: california; congress; elections; gop; mikegarcia; tomtiffany; wisconsin
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To: jimmygrace
I have a friend who says he "centrist", but actually leans left and I stated we should have lunch at the best burger place in DFW Flip's in Grapevine, he said he would still follow Clay Jenkins order of shelter in place, and then stated the fascist Clay was "saving lives", I rolled my eyes.
Went to Flip's yesterday and had a great burger with a couple of other friends and yesterday felt like normal life in 2 months. It was great.
I guess my former friend will not come out his house till 2025.
21
posted on
05/13/2020 9:55:21 AM PDT
by
DallasBiff
(Lautenberg The Forefather of "The Nanny State!")
To: SeekAndFind
22
posted on
05/13/2020 9:56:11 AM PDT
by
Zhang Fei
(My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
To: SmokingJoe
Approximately 2 hours ago and from an article on Gateway Pundit.
23
posted on
05/13/2020 10:02:43 AM PDT
by
Howie66
("...Against All Enemies, Foreign and Democrat.....")
To: SeekAndFind
Bigger question is how is voting going to be done in November
To: Zhang Fei
Can’t believe anything from the NYT. We can do better than that.
25
posted on
05/13/2020 10:04:13 AM PDT
by
Howie66
("...Against All Enemies, Foreign and Democrat.....")
To: stuck_in_new_orleans
Re: Bigger question is how is voting going to be done in November
Democrats want: 1) Mail in ballots; 2) Ballot harvesting
I predict there will be litigation all the way to the SCOTUS before November.
26
posted on
05/13/2020 10:04:48 AM PDT
by
SeekAndFind
(look at Michigan, it will)
To: SmokingJoe
Has the Democrat conceded?
27
posted on
05/13/2020 10:13:29 AM PDT
by
Lurkinanloomin
(Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
To: newnhdad
Exactly, it is not over yet.
To: Howie66
It’s never been close from the get go. Garcia has had a comfortable lead from last night.
To: Zhang Fei
To: Lurkinanloomin
Nope.
Has Stacey Abrams (Dem governorship candidate for Georgia from last year) conceded yet?
Nope.
Never stopped Kemp from becoming governor and doing an excellent job of it.
To: 11th_VA
this is a bullshit distraction. There are still 66,000 H2Bs coming in this year while US unemployment is likely to exceed 25%. Not to mention the 85,000 H-1Bs per year. And none of them ever seem to leave.
Partner, I could not have said this any better than u did.
Partner, President Trump has to win the election and we need to get rid of the DemonRat party once and for all to see.
The DemonRat party with our 80 year old Miss Pelousy should just step down or quit. Why does she need this $200,000.00 plus a year job. I know that you do not have to work like we do out here in Middle America.
The DemonRat party is a total disgrace.
To: TheConservativeTejano
Sorry about that since it is the wrong thread.
To: newnhdad
The California race was called. “””
Was a mail in ballot vote only...
WHO checked every envelope signature against existing records of registered voters overnight?
How did they count the ballots since we have done electronic voting for some years. Where did they get the machines to scan the paper ballots.???
To: ridesthemiles
We were also able to go vote in person for the special election...I chose to go vote in person last week,a couple voting machines were set up at the parking lot of our local community college...Would have preferred to wait till election day and would have done so had I known the machines were set up outside..We had a huge turn out on March 3rd, which is why I went to do early voting...It was not a mail in ballot only election.
35
posted on
05/13/2020 11:20:09 AM PDT
by
psjones
(u)
To: SmokingJoe
So. Garcia has not been declared the victor and the Commies are still manufacturing votes, right?
36
posted on
05/13/2020 11:29:45 AM PDT
by
Howie66
("...Against All Enemies, Foreign and Democrat.....")
To: SeekAndFind
While I welcome the result the state senate seat he held will wind up being appointed by our wacky governor Evers.
37
posted on
05/13/2020 1:18:10 PM PDT
by
mosesdapoet
(mosesdapoet aka L.J.Keslin posting here for the record hoping somebody might read and pass around)
To: SmokingJoe
What does a canvassing period mean?
To: SeekAndFind
Until they find a few *misplaced* or *lost* boxes of ballots that just by coincidence ALL vote dem and push the voter participation for the district to over 100%
39
posted on
05/13/2020 2:18:09 PM PDT
by
metmom
(...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
To: Howie66; Lurkinanloomin; Zhang Fei
Garcia won. It's over.
GOP wins California special election
Politico via MSN
Republicans have won a special election for Congress in Southern California, reclaiming a suburban House seat that they lost to Democrats in the 2018 midterms.
Democrat Christy Smith, a state assemblywoman, conceded defeat to Republican Mike Garcia Wednesday afternoon, one day after the closely watched special election runoff for the seat vacated by former Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.), who resigned last year.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3844611/posts
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