American People Have Repudiated Trump - a New York Editorial Board response

Trump spent the past two years trying to subvert American democracy. On Tuesday, the voters stood up to him.

New York Times editorial board opinion.

In the face of Donald Trump's many attempts to manipulate the midterm elections — through extreme gerrymandering, false claims of voter fraud, efforts to block mail voting and more — tens of millions of Americans responded by turning out and rejecting the Republican Party that has enabled him. 

Democrats retook control of the Senate and are poised to retake the House as well. The repudiation was broad enough to overcome America’s political polarization. Republicans lost races even in traditionally deep-red places, including Kansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas (add Maine). They lost because many independents and even Republicans consider Trump’s second term to be a failure.

The outcome creates a crucial check on Trump’s autocratic behavior. It empowers Democrats to investigate his corruption and law breaking and pass legislation that offers an alternative to his counterproductive agenda. The country already feels changed, and it will in fact be changed in January.

The country still faces many long-term problems to which neither party has offered clear solutions. And over the next two years, while Trump remains in the White House, Congress and judges will need to be prepared to counter further attempts by him to undermine the constitutional order.

Nonetheless, this is a day to feel pride. Aspiring authoritarians often use legislative elections to cement their power and further undermine democracy. In 2026, the American people refused to allow Trump to do so. The system has held.

In addition to voters, three groups deserve particular credit: election workers, legal advocates and judges.

Election workers did their jobs this year in the face of relentless pressure from Trump. He has long claimed that widespread fraud decides American elections, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. Election workers across party lines responded to these lies by doing their jobs as diligently as they long have, helping people cast their ballots and counting those ballots.

In many states, election officials took specific actions to stop interference from the Trump administration. 

Last year, the Justice Department demanded that states provide the federal government with voters’ birth dates, driver’s license information and partial Social Security numbers. Officials, including several Republicans, refused to comply.

Among the standouts were Utah’s Republican lieutenant governor, Deidre Henderson; Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson; and West Virginia’s Republican secretary of state, Kris Warner. Each refused to comply, each drew a lawsuit from the administration, and each won in court.

Their ability to resist the president underscores an advantage of America’s decentralized government. They could refuse because the president has no power to overrule them. The elections clause of the Constitution lets each state decide how its elections are run. This federalism proved a bulwark against Trump’s authoritarian instincts.

A second group that stood up for democracy this year were legal advocates. When Trump tried to interfere in the elections — through executive orders that sought to complicate voter registration, bar states from counting some mail and direct the Postal Service to decide which voters would receive mail ballots — advocates quickly responded by filing lawsuits.

The advocates included the Brennan Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause and Democratic attorneys general. Some prestigious law firms have been afraid of confronting the Trump administration’s legal abuses over the past two years, making the work of nonprofits all the more important.

The lawsuits frequently succeeded because of the third group: federal judges who insisted on following the law and upholding the Constitution despite intimidation efforts by Trump and his allies. Judges appointed by presidents from both parties, including Trump himself, blocked key parts of the executive orders concerning election rules. In 27 straight district court rulings, judges rejected the Justice Department’s demands for state voter rolls.

The Supreme Court deserves both credit and criticism. The court was wrong to issue rulings that made possible Trump’s extreme partisan gerrymandering and his administration’s efforts to create a national voter database. But the justices did act to protect Americans’ ability to cast votes this fall. In September, it upheld a lower-court ruling that barred the Postal Service from taking steps that could have restricted mail voting.

That ruling was a reminder that this court does have its red lines about elections. After the 2020, election, the justices refused to hear cases with Trump’s false claims about election fraud. The justices may need to swat down similar claims in the weeks ahead.

But the challenges ahead should not overshadow what Americans accomplished. This year, election workers, lawyers and judges defended the rules that protect the vote. And tens of millions of Americans went to the polls to exercise their most fundamental democratic right. Americans showed that the power to choose their leaders belongs to them. Now they must remain vigilant until officials certify every race and the winners take office.

Too close to call going into the 2018 election ~ Vote Blue

Too Close to Call Ohio 12 

Essay echo by Nathaniel Swigger, Associate Professor at Ohio State University published in The Conversation

Republicans should be in panic mode post the Ohio 12 special election.

Ohio’s special election to fill the seat of retiring Republican Congressman Pat Tiberi was too close to call on election night (when the results should have been pre-determined by Republican gerrymandering of the Ohio 12 Congressional district). 

Republican Troy Balderson’s lead was less than 1 percent ahead of his opponent, Democrat Danny O'Connor. Provisional and absentee ballots were still being counted the next morning.

The results in the election, like previous special elections this cycle in the Georgia 6th Congressional District and Pennsylvania’s 18th, signal that Democrats are energized and fielding quality candidates even in places that have not been competitive for them in recent election cycles.

The story of this special election has become familiar across the country: Democrats are angry, motivated and active even in districts that have traditionally been safely Republican. Meanwhile, Republicans continue to enjoy advantages in congressional elections.

These advantages are mainly due to gerrymandering, which has been easier for Republicans because their voters are spread out across suburban and rural areas in a way that lets Republicans control more space. Those advantages have given Balderson a slight lead, but Republicans across the country may be concerned after this election.
This was supposed to be easy

In the 2010 elections, Republicans won the Ohio governor’s race and control of the state legislature. They used that power to redraw congressional districts in their favor, rendering districts like the OH-12 largely un-competitive. 

President Donald Trump carried the district by 11 points in 2016.

MaineWriter ~ The way I see this, Donald Trump lost an 11 point margin in Ohio 12 (in less than two years).

That environment meant that Democrats faced significant barriers even with Tiberi’s retirement. And Republicans seemed to do all the right things to ensure they kept the seat. Balderson is a fine candidate. He has a resume as a reliable Republican state legislator and has played by the rules. He holds mainstream Republican positions and avoids extremist rhetoric.

Republican Balderson is not a Rick Saccone, the firebrand who lost to Conor Lamb in a Pennsylvania special election earlier this year. Nor is he a Roy Moore, the controversial Senate candidate who lost the special Alabama election after allegations of sexual assault and statutory rape came out.

The Republican Party, at both state and national levels, got heavily engaged in this special election. They spent a lot of money on the race, particularly in the last weeks of the campaign. 

Millions of dollars were spent on television ads, saturating the airwaves at a level usually reserved for presidential elections in the days leading up to the election.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence both held rallies in support of Balderson, and he received endorsements from Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Gov. John Kasich. 

The Ohio Republican Party was as active and united as they could be.

But....in the midterm environment?

The party not in control of the White House tends to do better in midterm elections, so it should come as no surprise that Democrats in Ohio were energized. One common explanation for this is that the difficulty of turning campaign promises into real results drives down enthusiasm among voters who become disappointed by their party’s struggles.

At the same time, enthusiasm rises among voters who see the governing party’s failures as confirmation of their own beliefs. This dynamic is, of course, exacerbated by President Trump’s historic unpopularity.

There are dozens of other House seats currently held by Republicans that will be at least as vulnerable as Ohio’s 12th Congressional District in November. 

Many things went right for Republicans in this special election: a strong candidate, lots of advertising, and strong party unity among key actors. They probably put forth their best possible effort – yet it is still too close to call.

Will Republicans be able to devote resources to all of those other races? If not, or if those resources aren’t enough, then Democrats could make strong gains this year.

Vote Blue 2018!

Republicans are obviously afraid of immigrants

Republicans build fear in people. Why do they fear immigrants?

800,000 young people are at risk of being deported

Fear is the political glue used by Republicans to hold their base together.  Fear about science, the media, global warming and Muslims are paralyzing the brains of Republicans. Many even believe it's against the moral fiber of Republicans to think independently. 

Anti-immigration policies supported by Republicans demonstrate how the party is also fearful of people who are trying to live law abiding lives in America, as immigrants.  

Obviously, Republicans are afraid of immigrants.

• Gerrymandering election districts has marginalized the voting rights of communities where minority and immigrant groups live.
• Republicans support massive deportations of law abiding immigrants.
• Republicans support the Donald Trump plan to ban immigrants from predominantly Muslim nations.
• Republicans support taking immigrant protection status away from "Dreamers", those children given resident status and potential path to citizenship for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

In fact, Republicans are also trying to dissuade people in Puerto Rico  (American citizens) from voting, as they are fleeing their homes that were ravaged by hurricane Maria. In fact, Puerto Ricans are registering to vote after relocated in Florida and Texas (by choice) and Republicans are fearful about how the Puerto Rico voters will tip the balance to Democrat in gerrymandered voting districts.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said Thursday he will seek to mobilize Latino voters ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, citing the GOP's tax overhaul passed this week.

Rosselló, a Democrat and member of the island's New Progressive Party, argued on MSNBC that the Republican tax plan hurts Puerto Rico's economy.

It's obvious that the Republican fear campaigns are harming the innocent people who are hard working and law abiding immigrants.

Apparently, Republicans don't want immigrants to become American citizens when they have voting rights. But, smart Republicans should embrace immigrants in an effort to create a stronger voting base.  It was the Republican Ronald Reagan who courted Hispanic voters when he extended them immigration amnesty.

Rather than fear immigrants, Republicans should reflect on their own immigrant histories.  Every single one of them has a family immigration story.  They must respect their inherited heritage.

Rather than fear immigrants, Republicans must embrace the power of the diversity and the talents they bring to America. 

Immigrants will "make America even greater again!"