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Open Thread for 11/8/2025….November Elections Had Democrats Win BIG Down Ballot Also….

By 88 Comments

I REPEAT…..

Donald Trump IS doing his BEST to help Democrat’s get ready for 2026 and 2028 Elections WINS!….

We’re suffering….

But there IS a EXPANDING HOPE  for the American Political Future….

The Fighting BACK  has begun…

 

In Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, voters elected a Democratic district attorney for the first time since the 1800s, part of a Democratic sweep of every county office including controller and recorder of deeds.

In Georgia, Democrats ousted two Republicans on the Public Service Commission, the party’s first capture of a statewide office in Georgia since 2006. In Connecticut, Democrats took control of 28 individual towns from the GOP. In New Jersey, Democrats won their biggest majority in the General Assembly since the Watergate era.

Much of the attention Tuesday night focused on the Democrats’ big wins in the Virginia and New Jersey governor’s races, as well as in the New York mayor’s contest. But the party also won hundreds of lower-profile state and local contests — often swamping Republican incumbents with overwhelming turnout, suggesting that voters’ desire to send a message opposing President Donald Trump was deep and wide.

“Voters are not just mad — they’re really mad, and they are willing to do something about it,” said Dan McCormick, a Pennsylvania Democratic strategist who is now serving as campaign manager for congressional candidate Bob Harvie. “Voters got their first opportunity to push back on the chaos that is happening within the Trump administration.”

Republican strategist Christopher Nicholas estimated that of the 480-plus contested races in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, Republicans won 11.

Still, he noted that just a year ago it was the GOP that was celebrating unexpected wins, and he said politics is always cyclical. “We have a pendulum in politics, and it is undefeated,” Nicholas said. “Last year you could say was a referendum on Joe Biden’s America. And Tuesday you could say was a referendum on Trump II’s first year.”…

…

Local elections attract far less attention than races for governor or senator. But these offices are critically important, and they often prepare local politicians to rise to higher office. Democrats in recent years have struggled to capture them, leaving the party without a robust farm-team system.

Tuesday’s sweep is hardly a guarantee that Democrats will do well in next year’s congressional elections. But decisive victories can create momentum, sparking a surge in a party’s donations, enthusiasm and recruitment.

Democratic leaders acknowledge they have a long way to go in crafting a message and identity that will appeal to voters independent of their opposition to Trump. That identity may not emerge until Democrats settle on a presidential nominee in 2028.

For now, party leaders are enjoying the unexpected scope of Tuesday’s wins…..

More…

Note…

The American political system maybe old and sloppy….

But dispite the media screaming…

It works….

And it’s biting Donald Trump & Co. back….

Their time is slowly running out….

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  2. The Democrats were never as bad off as was be depicted after Kamala Harris’s defeat last year.

    And the Republicans are not in as much trouble as is being depicted by their bad showing last week.

    Politics is cyclical and in this media driven world in which we now live every defeat is blown up into a major indicator of this,that and the other while most people are either unaware of it or give it only passing acknowledgment.

  3. President Donald Trump has granted preemptive pardons to Rudy Giuliani, his former personal lawyer, and other figures involved in the campaign to overturn the 2020 election, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

    Trump also preemptively pardoned Sidney Powell and John Eastman, two other attorneys who contributed to the efforts to keep Trump in power. Further, Trump pardoned dozens of other Republicans who came forward to act as alternative electors in the event that Congress complied with Trump’s demands and rejected the legitimate slate of electors submitted by each state.

    The U.S. government’s pardon attorney Ed Martin characterized the pardons as “full, complete, and unconditional,” in a post on social media.

    “Let their healing begin,” Martin wrote in a post on X.

    The pardon list includes 77 people, none of whom have been convicted of federal crimes….

    https://www.nationalreview.com/news/trump-preemptively-pardons-rudy-giuliani-others-involved-in-attempt-to-overturn-2020-election/

  6. Trump has announced that his doctor said his most recent MRI was “ the best result he has ever seen as a doctor.”

    Damn! That’s something isn’t it?

  7. Republican kook Laura Loomer ,in what seems like a preemptive strike prior to the release of all the Epstein files,says..

    “ You can’t be outraged by the Epstein saga and simultaneously not be outraged by the fact that we have Muslims serving in Congress.”

    A leading candidate for the “ Worst Wharaboutism “ award!

    • If you look hard enough, you might find that Congress is also infested with (shudder!) Quakers, Anabaptists, Roman Catholics, Mormons, Jews and agnostics. (Also the odd Hindu or Buddhist.)

      Perish the Republic !

      Whatever happened to the Know-Nothings and KKK when America needs them most?

    • Laura Loomer’s Endless Payback

      New Yorker: “The President’s self-appointed loyalty enforcer inspires fear and vexation across Washington. What’s behind her vetting crusades?”

      This woman HAS been responsible for NUMEROUS Federal workers losing their jobs after her whispering in Trump ear about ‘Loyality’ TO Trump not America , Law or Oaths they might have taken …..

  9. And in the category of who gives a damn…

    My top 5 personal choices choices for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination:

    1. Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pa.
    2.Gov, Andy Beshear of Ky.
    3.Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Mich.
    4.Cong. Jason Crow of Colo.
    5. Gov.Gavin Newsom of Calif.

      • “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

        — Ecclesiastes 9:11 (Authorised or King James Version)

        ¶ Up until the spring of 2015, Bernie Sanders was wallowing in the single-digit percentages, and then ….

        https://www.pollingreport.com/wh16dem.htm

        ¶ Rudy Giuliani led several of the GOP presidential polls in 2007:
        https://www.pollingreport.com/wh08rep.htm

        ¶ In the summer of 1998, Colin Powell led the possible Republican field for 2000, but he renounced any possible candidacy the day after the Democrats swept the November 1998 elections.

        https://www.pollingreport.com/wh2rep.htm

        ¶ If you’re joining a campaign or donating seed-money to a candidate, you have to look years in advance.

        But if you’re not, it’s fruitless to speculate this far ahead.

          • But that’s hardly a fair comparison, James:

            Donald Trump had won the 2016 Electoral College and many Republicans agreed with his belief that he won the 2020 election; he was uncontested in both 2020 and 2024.

            He was darker than a dark horse before his Golden Elevator speech in June 2015.
            Few people back then could have seen him as a serious (let alone likely) candidate.

            https://www.pollingreport.com/wh16rep.htm

            • Ok….

              Good Point….

              Yes he WAS the President before…

              But Jack’s list to me does NOT have a current day BIG Media guy except Newsom, who IS the current front runner…..

              Pritzer might come in second in the ‘Hit Parade’…..

              Dem’s gonna NEED someone who can meet the GOPer Noise and Entertainment level…

              Newsom IS there ALREADY….

              And he’s got time to build on run unlike Harris…

              And of course he’s a White Male younger than 65

        • Buttigieg isn’t on my list because he is not one of my choices as the nominee.

          Seemingly you are trying to distort my list into some kind of “ prediction “ when I specifically said it merely reflected my personal choices.

          However ,I do agree with your above comment ,” I don’t know.”

          Yes there is much that you “ don’t know.”

                • Yes I remember it well.

                  Early 2017 as I recall.

                  Or was it the middle of 2018?

                  It might have been the latter part of 2019.

                  Ah Hell it was all those times !

                  As I’ve said you’re quite the seer.Pat yourself on the the back.

                  Gross silliness.

                  • I Remember It Well
                    from the film Gigi

                    Song by Hermione Gingold, and Maurice Chevalier

                    We met at 9
                    We met at 8
                    I was on time
                    No, you were late
                    Ah yes
                    I remember it well
                    We dined with friends
                    We dined alone
                    A tenor sang
                    A baritone
                    Ah yes
                    I remember it well
                    That dazzling April moon
                    There was none that night
                    And the month was June
                    That’s right, that’s right
                    It warms my heart to know that you
                    Remember still the way you do
                    Ah yes
                    I remember it well
                    How often I’ve thought of that Friday-
                    Monday
                    -Night
                    When we had our last rendezxvouz
                    And somehow I foolishly wondered if you might
                    By some chance be thinking of it too
                    That carriage ride
                    You walked me home
                    You lost a glove
                    I lost a comb
                    Ah yes
                    I remember it well
                    That brilliant sky
                    We had some rain
                    Those Russian songs
                    From sunny Spain?/
                    Ah yes
                    I remember it well
                    You wore a gown of gold
                    I was all in blue
                    Am I getting old?
                    Oh no, not you
                    How strong you were
                    How young and gay
                    A prince of love in every way
                    Ah yes
                    I remember it well

                    Songwriters: Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe. For non-commercial use only.
                    Data From: Musixmatch
                    Feedback

  10. jack merely listed and ranked his personal preferences. He was not trying to handicap the race. james should not be criticizing something he was not even attempting to try to do. It’s just weird.

    If past history is any indication, james is likely to say that his boy Newsom must be the nominee or he will not support anyone else.

  12. For the record, here are the things I have said about the 2028 D field at this extremely early stage.

    1. I am not a Democrat. Everyone who will run will be far to my left. If I vote in a 2028 D primary and there is still a contest, it will be strategic or the desire to pick the least worst option.

    2. If having a strong narrative of experience and accomplishment is important, plus demonstrated political success in places where such a thing would not be guaranteed, Beshear and Shapiro would seem to be the strongest options for a general election.

    3. I think Newsom will struggle with the black vote in the primaries, especially if there is a credible black candidate such as Wes Moore or Cory Booker. If I had to “predict” the D nominee today, I think Wes Moore might have the best chance.

    4. Democrats have moved very much to the left and are very much into identity politics. A straight, white male who identifies as Christian (and especially one who comes across as one of the “elites”) are not pluses for them. This would be a problem for Newsom. If Newsom does wind up the nominee, there is not a chance in hell that his running-mate would be another white male.

    5. Being Jewish might even be worse than being Christian for many in the D base.

    • I AM favoring Newsom NOW because he has the juice right now against Trump and has the ball’s to go there….

      Yes Californai IS Democratic land…

      But It IS also a BIG place….

      Newsom plays the media better than anyone that might be running this early….

      Democrats have NOT neccesarly moved to the ‘Left’….

      Mamdani is NOT repressive of the party on the whole….

      He won in a weal field….

      I KEEP saying…

      To GOVERN?

      He WILL move to the middle as he IS ALREADY doing….

      Black voters will embrace someone that CAN WIN….

      They will NOT go hard for a lefty….

      I STILL think Jack’s list IS GOODS for the VP raffle…..

    • Roy Cooper is running for the Senate. If things work out well for him there, he will get elected, and obviously would not immediately become a Presidential candidate. Besides, he would be 71 in 2028.

  14. Trump is slobbering all over Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office

    How will the MAGA cultists take it?

    For one thing, he completely just ruined the Republicans 2026 anti-Mamdani plans.

      • I’m sure that Political Science doctoral dissertations and masters’ theses have been written about the tangled and contentious relationship between the serving President, Governor and Mayor.

        FDR had better relations with Republican mayor Fiorello La Guardia than he did with Tammany Hall.
        [But FDR also had generally good relations with the Democratic governor, Herbert Lehman; Lehman’s GOP successor Tom Dewey must have got along less well with FDR and ran against him in the 1944 presidential election.]

        On the other hand, the New York Daily News is known for its classic front-page headline: FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD!

        And whether from the same party (or even the same wing of the same party), New York governors and NYC mayors have rarely got along all that well: e.g. liberal Republican Nelson A. Rockefeller with liberal Republican John V. Lindsay.

      • Curtis Sliwa and his supporters must be feeling even more agita than Stefanik.

        Trump pressures Sliwa very hard (just as he successfully pressed Eric Adams in the Sept. Democratic primary) to give space to Andrew Cuomo in order to present a united front against the communist menace.

        Sliwa refused, thus earning the (?deadly) hatred of MAGA Republicans, red-baiters, Islamophobes and Ultra-Zionist (rivet to sea) Likudniks.

        And now the President exchanges compliments, pleasantries and promises from the Red Menace.

  16. Trump was completely star-struck by Mamdani. He turned into putty.

    He also took the chance to praise Bernie Sanders and FDR. We should start calling POTUS “Democratic Socialist Donald.”

    What a ridiculously weak and pathetic man.

  18. Marjorie Taylor Greene is resigning from Congress,

    Hell hath no fury…,,
    There have been some serious schisms in MAGA-land recently.

    Speaking for myself, I have been very hard on james for all his “just wait, Trump is imploding, just wait” mantra that he has been on for 10 years now.

    But you know what? After this past week, I think he could be on to something.

    • Why Republicans Are Fighting About the Nazis

      “For years, Jewish Republicans often denied that the right had a serious problem with antisemitism, pointing instead to anti-Jewish bigotry on the left and celebrating President Trump’s support for Israel,” the New York Times reports.

      “But now that problem is staring them directly in the face.”

      “Tensions over antisemitism in the party, free speech and Israel have burst to the forefront of G.O.P. politics, and show signs of becoming a fierce point of contention in 2026 primary races and beyond.”

        • Democrats look to cap off winning streak with Tennessee special election

          Democrats are going all in on a Tennessee special election next month, teeing up one last test of their electoral strength ahead of 2026 after enjoying a string of victories in November.

          Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin in recent weeks have campaigned for Democrat Aftyn Behn, a state representative running against Republican Matt Van Epps for former Rep. Mark Green’s (R) seat in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. Several outside Democratic groups have poured money into the race, too….

          More…

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