If you just checked the headlines on Wednesday morning, you might walk away thinking the Democrats had a massive night.
It was, let’s remember, an interim election with a few Governor’s seats available, and a bit of a bellweather relative to what one might expect for next November (362 days and counting down, my friends).
However, if you look behind the headlines, the results were more mixed:
- In Virginia, the Democrats capturing both the House of Delegates and the Senate, albeit by narrow margins, is uniformly good news.[efn_note]While he was not up for re-election, this is good news for Democratic Governor Ralph Northam, who had his own self-inflicted “black face” scandal last year.[/efn_note]
- In Kenntucky, Attorney General Andy Beshear has defeated incumbent Governor Matt Bevin by 5100 votes (49.2% to 48.8% at latest counting) which is also good news. Although Bevin has called for a recount, the odds are not good that he succeeds.
- On the other hand, in Mississippi, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves defeated Attorney General Jim Hood in an open race with no incumbents. Not a surprise, but still reassuring for Republicans.
On balance, this is certainly better news for the Democrats than the Republicans, but it mostly reinforces how divided the electorate currently is. And President Trumpelthinskin, despite his outrageous and completely transparent behavior over the last three years, still enjoys remarkable support given what his behavior has actually been like.
I don’t think we’ll ever see another person in my life time who is this badly behaved and still enjoys so much support. Not completely sure what it says about the United States of America, but I don’t think it’s good.