Choke job

So much for that "red wave."

As I write this, national Republicans appear to have lost a golden opportunity to seize the U.S. Senate. Even if they do, best case scenario is a scant 51-49 majority. 

On the House side, there was talk of upwards of 250 seats for the GOP, which would be a solid 37-seat gain. However, it's appearing as though 10-15 is the best they'll do, which gets them barely past the 218 threshold for a majority (223 to 228 range, to be exact). 

The silver lining of course is this makes Donald Trump damaged goods. Outside of JD Vance in the Ohio Senate race, all of Trump's handpicked candidates for U.S. Senate and Governor have vastly underperformed. While he's likely to announce soon that he'll run for President in 2024, there's no question he's now vulnerable in the race for the GOP presidential nominee. As such, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the favorite for the Republican nod after a thorough ass-kicking of Charlie Crist Tuesday evening. The only question now is if DeSantis is even interested in running for POTUS. 

In a bizarre twist, I feel as though I have to give some kudos to Democrats. They spent eight figures to prop up "election deniers" in GOP Congressional primaries with the thought they'd be easier to defeat in a general election. It appears to have been a sound strategy in spite of their utter hypocrisy in suggesting the GOP woefully lacks respect for democracy. 

The high anticipation I had for Republicans this night only to have those hopes inexplicably dashed must've been how Dems felt on Election Night 2016. I totally get it now. 

--------------------------------------------------