Analysis: The 2020 election just keeps getting worse for House Democrats



While a lot of the main target within the days instantly after November 3 fell on whether or not Joe Biden had overwhelmed Donald Trump (he had) and whether or not Democrats would win again the Senate majority (they have not — yet), the previous few days have been crammed with shut House races (lastly) being projected. And these projections reveal just how poorly House Democrats did.
With just a handful of races nonetheless uncalled at this level, Republicans have gained 9 seats — having gained 12 Democratic-held districts and misplaced just three of their very own. And these numbers do not even inform the total story, on condition that two of the three seats Republicans misplaced had been the direct results of a redrawing of North Carolina’s congressional districts that reworked the map in ways in which had been decidedly unfavorable to the GOP. Subtract these two seats, which neither social gathering spent any cash in or severely contested, and you might be all the way down to a single aggressive seat that went from pink to blue: The suburban Atlanta seventh District.

“It’s been almost two weeks since Election Day, and Democrats still haven’t won a *single one* of the 27 House races in @CookPolitical’s Toss Up column.”

That’s an unbelievable stat — particularly when you think about that the Democratic presidential nominee gained 306 electoral votes (and a 4-million-plus standard vote margin) on the prime of the ticket. And particularly if you issue within the predictions of House Democratic leaders and unbiased handicappers that Democrats had been poised to internet double-digit seats and widen their majority.

To date, Democratic leaders have acquired one thing of a go concerning just how badly they missed what was approaching November 3. While some weak Democrats — Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger, most notably — have made clear their dissatisfaction with the way in which the election performed out, there hasn’t been any kind of standard revolt in opposition to any member of the social gathering management as much as and together with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“We did not win every battle in the House, but we did win the war,” Pelosi said in the aftermath of the election, making the purpose that irrespective of how the uncalled races fall, Democrats will nonetheless maintain the House majority come January 2021.
And at the same time as House Democrats have sustained much more losses as races have been known as during the last 10 days, Pelosi has grown extra strident in her protection of the outcomes. “I take credit for winning a majority and holding the House,” she said recently.

Which appears just high quality along with her Democratic colleagues! Pelosi, in addition to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Maryland) and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (South Carolina), are all anticipated to be reelected to their present management jobs this week by the total Democratic caucus.

But reelected or not, there’s merely no spinning what occurred to House Democrats on November 3. It was a bad-bordering-on-disastrous election, notably when you think about that their majority will probably be fairly slim heading into Biden’s first midterm election, which, if historical past holds, is a foul one for the incumbent’s social gathering.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.