Bad Vibes: Dems Flip Heavily Pro-Trump District In Wisconsin State Senate Election

Hotair ^ | 01/17/2018 | Allahpundit

[SeekAndFind]

“Who cares about a state election in Wisconsin?” you ask. Ah, well, Scott Walker does. He’s running for a third term as governor this year and the current he’s rowing against is getting stronger. A lot of data nerds, eyeing the trend in last night’s results in special elections in Wisconsin and elsewhere, care. And if something doesn’t happen to stop the Democrats’ momentum, we’re all going to care in November.

Romney lost Wisconsin in 2012 but took Wisconsin’s 10th Senate District from Obama. Trump won the state narrowly in 2016 but crushed Hillary in the 10th. The last Republican to run for state senate there, a longtime incumbent, breezed to victory with 63.2 percent of the vote.

Last night? Democrats by 11.

Walker’s message to Wisconsin Republicans: MISSILE INBOUND. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Senate District 10 special election win by a Democrat is a wake up call for Republicans in Wisconsin.

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) January 17, 2018

Biggest takeaway from last night: We can’t presume that everyone knows about the positive things we’re getting done for the people of Wisconsin!

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) January 17, 2018

Nationwide, notes Dave Weigel, Democrats have picked up 34 legislative seats during the 2018 to, uh, four for the GOP. Remember the scene in “Ghostbusters” where the EPA dork shuts off the grid and Venkman et al. start to inch away from the machine and out of the room, knowing the destruction that’s about to be unleashed? That’s what election analysts were doing last night looking at the results in Wisconsin vis-a-vis the midterms:

Here is a breakdown of Democrats' over performance tonight in all 4 contested special elections:

SC #HD99: D+13.08%
WI #AD58: D+24.90%
WI #SD10: D+27.52%
IA #HD06: D+20.44%

That is an average Dem over performance tonight of D+21.49%

That's… significant.

— Aaron Booth (@ActorAaronBooth) January 17, 2018

Four close House special elections was a wake-up call. This is a five alarm fire. https://t.co/AsW92O9j6y

— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) January 17, 2018

Without an unpopular opponent for Trump, Trump's GOP's finding his unpopularity is crushing them electorally. Tonight's results on their own don't mean much, but, in context of 80+ state & federal legislative special elections, they're merely the latest sign GOP's in BIG trouble

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) January 17, 2018

*checks in on the special elections tonight* pic.twitter.com/kRyMVT0M0I

— Brandon Finnigan (@B_M_Finnigan) January 17, 2018

Can anything turn the tide — or at least slow it down a little? Well … maybe. The Times has some rare good polling news for the GOP today, finding a sharp uptick in approval for the new tax bill now that extra money’s beginning to show up in people’s paychecks.

The tax overhaul that Mr. Trump signed into law just before Christmas remains relatively unpopular and highly polarizing, according to a new poll conducted for The New York Times by SurveyMonkey. But support for the law has grown significantly over the past month, and more Americans believe that they will receive a tax cut. Forty-six percent of Americans strongly or somewhat approved of the law in early January, up from 37 percent when the bill was nearing passage in December.

At the same time, falling unemployment, accelerating economic growth and a surging stock market have made Americans increasingly positive about both their own finances and the overall economy. That could be good news for Republicans hoping to overcome Mr. Trump’s unpopularity in the midterm elections.

Michael Moran, a recently retired business executive in Georgia, said the economy in his town an hour north of Atlanta was “red hot.” The job market is so tight, he said, that he can’t even find an electrical contractor to perform repairs on his house.

The Dow has shot the moon, the economy’s booming, companies are paying tax-cut-inspired bonuses, and even blue-collar Americans are seeing more dough. In theory that’s a wave-buster. In theory. But last night’s results are what they are. God help the GOP if economic indicators, their one real breakwall in November, begin to disintegrate. Not even the Senate might be safe.

[laconic]

A large part of the problem in my view is that Trump appointed a mushhead as AG - Sessions is way in over his head and should have stayed in the Senate, where he towered over his colleagues. If Guiliani had been made AG, there would have been no recusal and no lousy independent counsel, and the AG would have gone on the attack from Day One. Instead, we have Rosensine, Mueller and mush, with the totally unnecessary loss of a Senate seat.

[ZULU]

Hus popularity was HIGHER than othet Presidents the same time in their term.

[ZULU]

Totally agree with you.

[Mr. Jeeves]

“Hatred of Hillary” was an important factor in 2016 that won’t be there in 2018. But the critical factor this time will not be the Democrat voters’ “Hatred of Trump” but the Republican voters’ “Indifference To RINOs”.

[Steamburg]

Hell of a Bushy job there Speaker Ryan. Can’t even whip up turnout in his home state. They are about to get the government they ask for.

[RoseofTexas]

WOW!!!! Thank you for sharing!! It needs to go viral!!!👍🏻 Made my day!!!!

[chris37]

The GOP wants trump impeached as much as the rats do.

How dare we not let them let Jeb Bush lose to Hillary.

[OldMissileer]

Did the Republican candidate campaign heavily and speak out for votes against the Obama era/democrat?

I truly believe McConnell and Ryan are choking off most funding for Republicans, except for their GOPe buddies (just wait and see how much money they will throw at Romney, it will be huge) because they want to lose both chambers of Congress. They will then say that Trump did it and then start to tell us to fall back in line and again bend our knee to them or never see a Repub win.

McConnell and the Swamp are setting us up for a huge failure to try to stop our one last hope at taking back our Country from their evil grip. They MUST somehow be stopped.

[sargon]

The hysteria around here is palpable. Based on a night where the GOP won 3 out of 4 races. And in the race which the GOP lost, turnout was a paltry 12%. Anyone who thinks that's what's going to happen in November is smoking crack.

Every single time some bad news comes along, it's just a hand-wringing extravaganza around here. The same thing occurred before the election, and all through 2017, and in zero of the cases did the sky actually end up falling!

If President Trump gets involved in the GOTV ("get out the vote") effort for the midterms, and can make a strong case for his policies—and he can—then the GOP will do much better than any of the Nervous Nellies around here think.

This is January, for God's sake. There are ten months of reality left between now and November—ten months of economic news, driven by the biggest middle class tax cut in U.S. History—and the news for the economy, jobs, and wages should be quite positive.

I see absolutely zero evidence of any Democrat wave building, and trying to make accurate predictions 10 months out is simply ludicrous. Do people honestly expect to draw broad conclusions based on atypical situations like the Ray Moore race?

It's ridiculous, and by now, people around here should know better than to fall for this Democrat gaslighting. And yet they do every election cycle, without fail.

As I said: if the President has anything to say about it—and he will—the GOP should do fine in November, despite the best efforts of the GOPe to engineer a defeat for Deplorables.

And if the American people are so stupid as to give the Democrats power, then they will deserve the consequences which flow from that—consequences which will ultimately force even more of the People to open their eyes and see the Swamp for what it is.

This revolution will not come to fruition without major pain and turmoil, and anyone who thinks that our travails will be isolated only to the electoral realm hasn't been paying attention over the last decade.

We are at war. A war of propaganda and of harsh realities. There will be setbacks. But those will make our ultimate victory all the more sweet.

I, for one, will be voting in November. If all of you will be voting in November, then exactly who are these GOP voters that will be staying home?

Do Deplorables need to stay vigilant? Yes.

Do Deplorables need to wring their hands about every single setback, and grossly distort the perspective and impact of such events? Most certainly not.

[sergeantdave]

And rats lost four of five races. Republican winners in Iowa, South Carolina and Kansas.

[KevinB]

Which is exactly why Hillary lost. Things have shifted 180 degrees since November 2016.

[KevinB]

Anybody who doesn’t learn a lesson from what happened in Virginia is a fool. There is absolutely a Dim wave coming and if Republicans don’t get their sh*t together they are going to be destroyed.

[trebb]

How involved was Walker in the special election? I heard his name a few times but have no idea if he was a strong proponent of the Repub.

[Republican Wildcat]

One of the most reliable conservative votes in the Senate (where those are desperately needed as we have seen many times in the past), and you leave the ballot blank? That’s ridiculous logic.

[Republican Wildcat]

Needed more door knocking and rides to the polls vs. air wars, apparently. 12% turnout with that Wisconsin GOP machine is pathetic...they must have just assumed they would win given the history of the district. Never a safe assumption no matter if the GOP normally gets 90% of the vote...if your voters don’t show up to the polls but the other side does, that’s it - no matter what your advantage supposedly is on paper.

[chris37]

For Rubio? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

Yep. Blank.

Lindsey Graham votes for things we need too sometimes. Do you think I’d for that guy?

Will be voting for Gaetz though.