Well, Braun was pretty geeky candidate too, but Indiana is at a different place - demographically - than Virginia...and it is those trends that are making the future look troubling for conservatives.
The Republican Party is much tighter and better than it was two days ago. That is unquestioned, but McSally has to see how tough her situation is - she may become our Manchin if Arizona is indeed that open to a socialist. We also have Romney, Collins, Murkowski, Burr and Sasse, so we still can’t get out over our skis here.
The economy issue is a worry - it’s central to the Trump presidency...his being a businessman outsider and all. Yet, people weren’t swayed by the economy but seemed at least willing to go along with open borders positions and nationalized healthcare.
On the economy issue, we may actually learn something from the Democrat claims that the gains are just for “the rich”. It gets out the vote in urban areas. Here in Vegas we went dark blue because of the huge influx of immigrant workers over the years - they work in low paying jobs (service jobs, hotels, day care) where tax cuts don’t even register and the benefits from booming business do not come swiftly in the way of higher pay or new, better jobs. This is a huge number of urban and suburban workers not seeing anything - yet - from the economic boom. To them “fixing healthcare” (nationalization, like in their original home countries) is the big winner, economically. We need to find a way to reach these people - they vote in droves here - and get real benefits into their hands.
People don’t want open borders - donors do.
People want closed borders AND nationalized healthcare. Right now, they are voting on how much they are affected by #1 as opposed to #2.
Eventually, if we still have elections, somebody will figure out a way to offer both, and that person or their faction will rule for 100 years.