November 7, 2018

It’s Wednesday Morning, and the Election Was Still a Blowout for Democrats

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I  want to repeat what I said last night. The midterm results probably seem disappointing to Democrats because they lost so many high-profile races: Bill Nelson and Andrew Gillum in Florida, possibly Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Beto O’Rourke in Texas, and Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Plus a bunch of shaky House members won: Devin Nunes, Steve King, Duncan Hunter, and here in my own district, Mimi Walters. What’s more, it looks like Dems are going to lose all three of the razor-close Senate races: Montana, Arizona, and Florida.

But! Dave Brat lost. Scott Walker lost. Kris Kobach lost. Barbara Comstock lost. Dana Rohrabacher finally lost. And Dems picked up seven governorships.

But most important, Democrats flipped dozens of congressional seats and took control of the House despite running against a terrific economy. The last time we had an economy this good during a midterm was in 1998, when the party in power actually picked up seats in the House. The fact that Democrats did so well in face of such huge headwinds is a rebuke to Donald Trump and no one else. Suburban voters simply got tired of his racist and xenophobic schtick and turned on him en masse. The result was a historic victory for progressives.

So celebrate! The odds of doing this well when the economy was in great shape were tiny. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Progressives kicked ass this year, and no amount of spin from the White House can change that. Donald Trump will try, but he’s got nothing:

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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