November Dreaming

By BARRY FRIEDMAN

WASHINGTON — Democrats nationwide celebrated last night after increasing their advantage in the Senate, keeping control of the House of Representatives, and picking up five governorships.

Democrats won key Senate races in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Ohio, and Georgia and will now hold at least 53 seats in the chamber — it had been deadlocked at 50 after the 2020 election — while the GOP is guaranteed at least 45 seats. The two outstanding races are in Florida, where Incumbent Republican Senator Marco Rubio is trailing 10th District Congresswoman Val Demmings by 1476 votes with almost 9,000,000 votes cast, and in North Carolina, in the race for the seat held by retiring incumbent Republican Senator Richard Burr, Democratic Cheri Beasley, the former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, leads Representative Ted Budd by 3,504.

(In a late-breaking story, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) announced he will be holding a press conference at the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville where he is expected to announced his retirement.)

Democrats also held on to their advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives, albeit with a majority of only four seats with one seat still undecided.

In the nation’s key Governor’s races, Democrats scored upsets in Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Texas, and even surprisingly in Oklahoma where former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hoffmeister beat incumbent Kevin Stitt, a Trump loyalist. Hoffmeister, a former Republican, ran as a Democrat.

(Nationwide, no incumbent Democratic senator or governor was defeated.)

Exit polling indicated the GOP’s position on abortion, its support of book banning, and its treatment of migrants — as well as the legal troubles and erratic behavior of former President Trump — contributed to the party’s election woes. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who was not up for re-election, said, “We in the Republican Party may have to rethink some of the things we are doing, who we are, and who we associate with.”

In Wisconsin, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes defeated Incumbent Senator Ron Johnson, who claimed that insurance should only be made available to those who don’t need it. In Georgia, former Heisman Candidate Herschel Walker, who faced allegations of spousal abuse and fathering children out of wedlock, as well as claiming the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act would “pay” for trees, lost to Democratic Incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, who will now begin his first full term.

Walker, however, didn’t concede last night, saying instead, “Jesus never got more votes than his opponents, either, so what does that tell you? J.C., let’s win together.”

In Pennsylvania, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman easily beat back a challenge by television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz. During the campaign, Fetterman questioned whether Oz was a resident of the state, while Oz, a cardiac surgeon, said the stroke Fetterman suffered this past summer was due to Fetterman’s lack of vegetable intake. In his concession speech, Oz joked, “I’m going to go back to one of my many homes and process this.”

Last night’s results seemed unthinkable a few months back as most experts predicted the GOP would take control of both houses of Congress. But the party’s fortunes began to change in June when the Supreme Court upended Roe v Wade, which recognized a woman’s right to an abortions. That decision was credited with mobilizing thousands of women voters, including those in Ohio, where Representative Tim Ryan defeated Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance by 150,000 votes. Vance, who had told the Spectrum News earlier this year that abortion laws should provide no exceptions for rape and incest “because we all want women and young boys in the womb to have a right to life, regardless of circumstance” was in Europe on election night and couldn’t be reached.

Along with victories in Arizona, where incumbent Mark Kelly easily defeated Blake Masters, and in Nevada, where incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Attorney General Adam Laxalt, Democrats will now have what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling “breathing room” to get the president’s agenda through Congress.

Late last night, after it became clear Democrats would keep control the Senate, Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-Ky.) released a statement: “I have no intention of spending my twilight years fighting against a socialist agenda or, for that matter, fighting with the unhinged elements of a once-proud Republican Party, which includes the former president, the father of the mother of all unhinged.” Seventeen minutes later, that former president, Donald Trump, issued a statement on his social media platform Truth Social:

“Mitch, a big HACK, should have LEFT — get it?— long ago. He has pulled down [sic] are great party and country. He won’t be MISSED.”

The former president, who supported many of yesterday’s losing candidates, also tweeted his support to those who believe the election was rigged. “The FAKE MEDIA is like totally in the pockets of President Senile BRANDON [a derogatory term for Biden]. Don’t let them do what they did to ME!”

On Oct. 7, in New York, Trump was charged in a 15-count indictment accusing him of fraudulently inflating the value of his hotels, real estate holdings and golf courses to obtain favorable loans. On Oct. 14, in Georgia, he was indicted for solicitation to commit election fraud relating to phone calls he made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in December of 2020, asking him to “find 11,780 votes.” Nevertheless, on Oct. 25, at his Mar-a-Lago estate, the former president announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024. Later that same day he was taken to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center for what doctors described as “moderate bowel obstruction” and a “severely enlarged colon.”

Barry Friedman is an essayist, political columnist, petroleum geology reporter and comedian living in Tulsa, Okla. In addition to “Funny You Should Mention It,” “Road Comic,” “Four Days and a Year Later” and “The Joke Was On Me,” his first novel, “Jacob Fishman’s Marriages,” a book about the worst love story ever, was published by Balkan Press in February. See barrysfriedman.com and friedmanoftheplains.com.

From The Progressive Populist, October 15, 2022

Populist.com