Politics: 2020 Indiana Governor Race Results

There is an important post for this blog that I want to do that isn’t ready yet and I needed to do something quick. Thus, I’m talking about the Indiana governor race from earlier this year. This was at one point going to be one of the races that I was eager about as I wanted there to be a change in who held the office at one point, but then changed my mind.

Basically, the race came between incumbent Republican governor Eric Holcomb, Democrat Woody Myers, and Libertarian Donald Rainwater. It would seem that a lot of people did not like Eric due to some of the restrictions that were put in place. But it doesn’t explain alone why Donald did as well as he did, getting at least 11% of the vote. Eric still won around 56% of the vote with Donald seeming to steal the votes from the Democrat. I didn’t support Woody since he was not that strong a candidate. Plus, I liked Eric’s efforts to combat the coronavirus largely due to him joining an alliance of largely Democratic governors.

Ultimately, Eric is now term limited and will not be able to run again in 2024. If he ever turns on me, then I will start counting done to when he will be leaving office since it is guaranteed that this will happen at a specific date. He will leave office when his term expires in 2025. I will not know what he could do after that in terms of a political future. Will he run for other office? I do not know. But I actually like the fact that he won and look forward to him continuing his time in office in the future.

Politics: 2020 Attorney General Election Results

I have an important post to cover in this blog, but I will not be doing that today. I hope to have that covered next before the year is over. I’ll be scheduling a lot of posts for different blogs to cover the rest of this year and one for New Year’s Day as well. Now I decided that it would be fast and easiest to write this post now. I will cover other results of races from this year later while covering some of next year’s elections and other things that I feel work well in this blog.

Now I do need to cover more in general the attorney generals that are related to the case that relates to Obamacare called California versus Texas. (Speaking of that, when are we going to learn the results of that case? I mean, it has had its only day in court so when are going to hear what the results are? Shouldn’t we know already?) Now I will split some of them into two groups and a picture in a later post should explain more. The ones that I call good are the orange ones. Of all of them that ran for reelection (which was all of them), note that the orange ones advance and will stay around until 2025.

Starting at the beginning, let’s start with the state of North Carolina. The race was between the incumbent Democrat Josh Stein and the Republican challenger Jim O’Neill. Josh won reelection and will continue to serve as a result. Let’s next get to the state of Washington. The race there was between incumbent Democrat Bob Ferguson and the Republican challenger Matt Larkin. Bob won reelection. In the state of Oregon, the race was between incumbent Democrat Ellen Rosenblum and the Republican challenger Michael Cross. Ellen won reelection. The last state in this grouping to mention is Vermont. The race there was between the incumbent Democrat T.J. Donovan and the Republican challenger H Brooke Paige. T.J. won reelection.

As for the states with attorney generals that are against Obamacare that ran for reelection, the ones that I’m calling the green ones, they also all won their elections and won’t be up again until 2024. I’m already counting down the days.

Let’s start with the state of Missouri. While Eric Schmitt wasn’t elected to this office before, he did win this office by winning reelection. This Republican won against Democratic challenger Richard Finneran. In the state of Utah, Republican incumbent Sean D Reyes won against the Democratic challenger, Greg Skordas. In West Virginia, Republican incumbent Patrick Morrisey won against the Democratic challenger, Sam Petsonk.

Now there was one of the green ones that will be leaving office. His name is Curtis Hill and he will be leaving office on January 11, 2021. He never had to face the voters of Indiana as after a scandal left him without a law license for a month, he wasn’t nominated to another term. Instead of him, the Republican party of the state (not the voters) chose Todd Rokita to be their nominee and he won against Democrat Jonathan Weinzapfel.

As for the only two states that had this office up for election this year, I might as well cover both of them before I get to the end of this post. In Montana, the incumbent Republican, Tim Fox, did not run for reelection. The race was instead between Republican Austin Knudsen and Democrat Raph Graybill. Austin won the election. The last state was Pennsylvania. The incumbent office holder, Democrat Josh Shapiro, beat the Republican challenger, Heather Heidelbaugh. 

That’s all that I need to cover for this post. I hope that you found it helpful and I will do a better job explaining the green ones versus the orange ones in the next post including the graphic that will make it all make sense to you. So stay tuned. There is more to talk about regarding a lot of the attorney generals in this country.

Politics: The Crusade Against Act Blue

Lindsey Graham couldn’t believe for a moment that people would want to give more money to his opponent than to him. He and some others were wondering how Act Blue was raising so much money for the Democratic candidates for office.

He thinks that Act Blue should be investigated. The Democratic fundraising site pulled in a lot of money for Democratic candidates in the 2020 election cycle. Still, it would seem that Democrats underperformed in the elections, not doing as well as they hoped.

But what is the crusade against Act Blue? Well, quite clearly, it is people like Lindsey Graham and others like him who think that openly giving money on a secure website is somehow bad because it puts him at a financial disadvantage. Of course, he still won anyways so maybe he will give up this idea of an investigation into a legal political donation site. What does he think is wrong with this site? It is hard to say.

When we have this thing called dark money, it very clearly puts some people at an advantage they wouldn’t otherwise have which is why a lot of candidates refuse to accept it. Dark money relates to Super Pacs and other things like it. Act Blue is very open and not like dark money at all. It is more likely that Lindsey Graham has benefited from dark money than by something like Act Blue. And that’s provided that people have even used something like that for him. Last I checked, the Republican counterpart to Act Blue was so new that most people might not know about it or use it.

Will there be any problems or issues if Act Blue is investigated? I wouldn’t see how myself. I mean, maybe something here and there could cause issues, but it is ironic that Republicans, people who are more likely to benefit from suspicious things like dark money, are wanting to investigate a very open site that emails receipts to the people who use it. Plus, if there have been some people that misused it, what would that mean in general? Would the whole site be bad and not just one person here and there? That’s why the crusade against act blue, if it was even that major an issue anymore, is kind of dumb and pointless.

Politics: 2020 Elections- Extra Innings

There is a lot to talk about still in politics after the elections happened in 2020. I can look ahead at the next set of elections from 2021 and even 2022. But there will now be a runoff for both of the senate seats in Georgia that are happening early in 2021, putting the race for the senate into extra innings, hence the name of this blog post. As for me sorting out the next set of posts from doing 2021’s elections, the results of 2020’s elections, and a few other things here and there that are worth mentioning in the election theme that I follow for this blog.

The fate of control of the senate is in control and Democrats will get what they need to, but only if they win both of the senate races that are heading to runoffs. Thus, I’m just focusing on the two Georgia senate races since that’s all that’s left to talk about.

What are the results of the regular race thus far? In the lead up to this next race, David Perdue got 2,458,453 votes and Jon Osoff got 2,371,921 votes. Since neither had more than 50% of the vote, that means there is set to be a runoff between incumbent Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Osoff. It is odd that the date of the runoff doesn’t happen until after the start of the new senate term, making it possible that David would have to vacate his seat, at least for a moment. If there would be temporary replacement, that is currently unknown.

One of the notable parts about that race is that there was a viral moment during the debate that had gone on. I don’t have footage of the whole debate, which might be good and interesting. But he’s an article about one of the most notable moments with other parts of the debate mentioned in the link as well.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/perdue-ossoff-face-georgia-senate-debate-attack-goes-viral-n1245238

As for the special election, that is between incumbent Republican Kelly Leoffler and challenge, the Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock now that we are in the runoff stage. He actually got the most votes in the primary. The main thing against Kelly is the insider trading allegations that are against her. I’m not even sure how she came in second instead of some other Republican or even a Democrat. She was appointed to the vacant seat and only seems to be in here as she has a lot of money to self fund her own campaign.

As stated before, if Democrats fail to win one or both of the elections, they will not be able to gain control of the senate. If they win both, there will be a 50/50 split between parties. I would have to endorse both Jon Osoff and Raphael Warnock in both elections. If you live in Georgia, I would have to recommend that you vote for both of them. As for any donations, do what you want to as I’ve already donate what I’m going to for both races.

I do have to wonder how much influence Trump could have on this election as this could be the first after his era is over, but might not be as he will still be in office. As for what posts might happen yet, I know currently some of what I will cover (and I’ll have to cover the results of all that have been covered in this blog thus far, with a few others here and there), but do not know for sure what order they will appear in yet. Stayed tuned for posts and know that if the when of when I update this blog changes, I should let you know when it happens.

Politics: 2020 West Virginia Governor Race

This will be my last post before the election. I will have to cover other subjects that sort of relate to elections from the next post after this. In addition to that, I will get to covering the results of the elections after they are known, the elections for 2021, then the elections for 2022 as well.

As for the West Virginia governor race, the country road has to take me home, where I stand. Wait. That’s a song unrelated to this election. The incumbent is Republican Jim Justice. He was once a Democrat, having been elected as that. He was a Republican before and didn’t stay a Democrat for long. West Virginia hadn’t had a Republican governor since 2001. If he wins office, he will be the first Republican elected governor from this state since the 1996 election.

There are many issues with him and his time in office. While his businesses gets a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), that’s not a problem on its own. But as governor, he is in charge of the state agencies that regulate his businesses. He also had moderate views. Some of what are considered conservative views that he has are being pro-life and supporting gun rights. Some of his liberal views are supporting LGBT and health care rights.

Many people like me might view Jim as a traitor to his old party. His opponent is Democrat Ben Salango. Ben is currently a county commissioner. Other third party candidates in the race are Daniel Lutz of the Mountain Party, Erika Kolenich of the Libertarian Party, and various write-in candidates. There’s not much else to say about that.

While I could talk some about the effects of coronavirus on West Virginia, there isn’t as much to say about it since it doesn’t seem to be as bad there. How much of that was due to Jim doing things good or simply not having as many people packed there together like they are in some states that might have more people in it. But it could have to do with measures that he did so he might not be as bad as I think. 

Still, when it comes to an endorsement in this race that I feel like doing, I would have to endorse Ben Salango in the race. While not talked about as much, Jim feels like a lesser version of the guy in the White House with his influence of things specifically with his businesses. Thus, Ben would be a more trustworthy candidate. If you can vote in West Virginia and haven’t done that already, then vote for Ben Salango.

Politics: 2020 South Carolina Senate Race

One of the most important races right now is the South Carolina senate race. While no poll has the Democrat with the lead just yet, enough are tossup and even those that give it to Lindsey are not giving him that good an edge. Could he actually lose? Will people #sendLindseyhome? One can only hope that his time is finally up.

When it comes to Republican incumbent Lindsey Graham, there was actually a point in time not even that long ago where he was a good and logical person. But then he surrendered to the very idea of Trump like nearly every other Republican of today.

Meanwhile, the Democratic challenger in the race named Jamie Harrison. He has done a lot of good and can do even more good if he gets into office. I can only hope that his proves to be a major upset of the elections in question.

Now I have some links to share about Lindsey and there sure are a lot of them. All of these are from some point during this year, but are pretty old. He embraces the worst of the far right as he becomes fascist in his quest to out the whistleblower of today. He (or she, but probably he from all the sources that I’ve read thus far) may be the Deep Throat of our time and we may never know for sure who they are. But it is important that we keep this person safe and anonymous as a whistleblower is supposed to be.

Link: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/3/1916208/-Fascism-rises-Graham-says-Senate-GOP-will-summon-whistleblower-to-expose-how-this-crap-started?detail=emaildkre

There are notable people who have flipped on Lindsey and seek to take him out of office. Here is the story of one you used to support Lindsey and will now be against this man, wanting him out of office.

Link: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/12/1944276/-Former-supporter-of-Graham-What-is-the-character-of-a-man-who-will-not-defend-his-best-friend

While the next article is from May, it is relevant now due to him being perhaps the most notable of all of the senators that have done a 180 on confirming Supreme Court justices this close to an election. Use his words against them. This man is now the one that is in charge of the senate judiciary committee instead of Chuck Grassley. 

Link: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/16/1945555/-Liar-Lindsey-doubles-down-on-the-GOP-Double-Talk-Merrick-Who

Another old story talks about the conservative court stacking that has been going on since near the end of the Obama administration and continues to this very day all while this side has the audacity to claim that only liberals want to do this while doing this.

Link: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/28/1948277/-Graham-amps-up-McConnell-s-court-packing-scheme-says-conservative-judges-over-65-should-step-aside?detail=emaildkre

It seems that every horrible Republican in the present, there is a good version of them in the past. Looking back in time, you’ll see a Lindsey Graham who does not like Trump and thinks that Biden is a good person.

Link: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/13/1952949/-Lindsey-Graham-Tells-Trump-Go-To-Hell-Says-Joe-Biden-s-As-Fine-A-Man-As-God-Made-In-New-Ad

That is all worth talking about this for now. When it comes to an endorsement in the race, it is hard not to support someone other than Jamie Harrison to vote for. If I hadn’t seen a lot of the Kavanaugh hearings, then I wouldn’t hate Lindsey as much as I do. Now if he does actually lose this election, he’ll have no one but himself to blame.

Politics: 2020 Attorney General Elections

While I once thought that I would only do one post on one attorney general race throughout all of my blogging time, this will not be the case after all. There is a lot to say about this important but often overlooked office. If you want to know why I’m doing this post, it relates entirely to the upcoming Supreme Court case called California v Texas. The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg has made me out for blood (figuratively, of course). For more information on the races for this office this year, read this.

Link: https://ballotpedia.org/Attorney_General_elections,_2020

The elections for attorney general this year are in Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia. I do not think that there are any more that are happening that voters can’t vote on. But I do know that there are a lot of the state races where one can vote if one can vote in that state.

The states with attorney generals in favor of Obamacare that are up for reelection this year, according to the litigation for the upcoming Supreme Court case that I told you about, are North Carolina, Washington, Oregon, and Vermont. Would I blindly want these people to stay in the office that they currently have? Maybe. It is hard to be out for blood without blind vengeance.

The states with attorney generals against Obamacare that are up for reelection this year are Missouri, Indiana, Utah, and West Virginia. This does lead to a bit of an interesting thing to note with one of the states. I’ll get to that later. Am I blindly against all of them? No. I do know enough about Missouri’s current attorney general to know that I’m against him in not a blind way at all. And one of them is on their way out now anyways.

It is also important that is seems the attorney generals of the states of Pennsylvania and Montana do not have any role in the Supreme Court case. Thus, there isn’t as much to add about them just yet at the moment. They aren’t the only states not involved in the case.

What’s interesting is that when it comes to the Indiana attorney general race, the incumbent had lost renomination after a scandal which got him disbarred for a month. Thus, Curtis Hill will not be the nominee for the Republican Party as Todd Rokita will be instead. As for the Democratic side, Jonathan Weinzapfel is the nominee. Neither party of that state let the voters pick who would win the primary as that was up to party insiders at a convention.

In Missouri, the attorney general used to be Josh Hawley, but he got elected senator and had to resign from the office as a result. Thus, Eric Schmitt was appointed to the vacant seat. He is a Republican. I don’t like him for a lot of reasons. In addition to the Obamacare issues, he also wants to change the law to allow people to sue China over coronavirus, which is a terrible and short sighted idea. The Democrat in the race is Richard Finneran.

In Montana, the Democratic candidate is Raph Graybill while the Republican one is Austin Knudsen. The Republican incumbent is not in the race itself. That is because this person ran for higher office, but lost the primary.

In North Carolina, the Democratic candidate is incumbent Josh Stein. Meanwhile, when we get to the Republican candidate, it is Jim O’Neill. I feel that Josh should be reelected. He has done other good too such as trying to punish JUUL, prevent robo calls, deal with price gouging, and protect the elderly from scams.

In Oregon, the incumbent is Democrat Ellen Rosenblum. The Republican in the race is Michael Cross. Ellen has done a lot of good, such as working to investigate the illegal “police” that were occupying Portland that I need to do more research into.

In Pennsylvania, the incumbent is Democrat Josh Shapiro. The Republican in the race for this office is Heather Heidelbaugh. I have no investment in this race one way or another. Maybe I should care, but I don’t. But do I really want to learn about this state’s politics? Maybe I would in other races, but not this one.

In Utah, the incumbent is Republican Sean D Reyes. The Democrat in the race is Greg Skordas who I have to endorse since he is not against the Affordable Care Act. I can’t find as much info about Greg as I would like easily.

In Vermont, the incumbent is Democrat T.J. Donovan. The Republican is H Brooke Paige. I am not just in favor of T.J. because of his support of Obamacare, but also because he knows how to improve the law to be in favor of everyone and not just the less fortunate.

In Washington, the incumbent is Democrat Bob Ferguson. The Republican is Matt Larkin. Bob was once on the Time 100. It is hard to say much about the candidate I support named Bob. But one should vote for him.

In West Virginia, the incumbent is Republican Patrick Morrisey. The Democrat is Sam Petsonk. While I can’t find as much information as I would like quickly about Sam, I’d still have to support him in the general election as Patrick is against the ACA.

That is all for this post. If I endorsed a candidate, I urge you to vote for him if you can. If I didn’t, then make whatever decision you want. I’m sorry that I don’t know as much info as I’d want to on some of the candidates, but I can’t care. This is an important, but overlooked job. Thus, one much make sure one knows about these races.

Politics: 2020 Minnesota Senate Race

This may not be the last time that I do a post about a specific senate race this year, but this should be the last time that I feel that I have to do one this year. There is a lot to cover still and some more specific posts might not come up until after the election as I seek to find a whole lot of things to cover in terms of elections for this blog. Now when it comes to who one should vote for in the South Carolina senate race this year, the choice to me are relatively clear. But let me get to this post now anyways.

Incumbent Democrat Tina Smith has done a lot so far with her career. She used to be the lieutenant governor of Minnesota until Al Franken announced his resignation. During this time, she was appointed to the vacant seat and won the special election to said seat a mere two years ago. She has done a lot of good with Democratic issues, although it might take too long to mention all of them right now.

As for her challenger, Republican Jason Lewis, it can be hard to find people this bad in life. I mean, I’m going to spare you repeating the exact things that he’s said, but you should know that he has made sexist comments on radio show and has said various other horrible things as well. Somehow, he held office for a term in the US House from 2017-2019. Hopefully, he can stay out of future office.

The choice is a no brainer. If you want to have a horrible man who continues to give all men a bad name while causing further proof of the deterioration of the Trump Party, I mean, wait, no, I got it right, then vote for Jason Lewis. Meanwhile, if you want a good senator who could do even more good than she already has, then vote for my endorsement of Tina Smith for senator.

Politics: 2020 Michigan Senate Race

I miss being able to talk some about important political things like I did in my Madam Secretary blog or other blogs. You might have gotten the point that I cared about some elections than I did others and you’d be right. I am constantly adding more and more that I care about. Thanks to the Midwestern governor alliance, I am adding Ohio, Minnesota, and Michigan to a previously unnamed and unranked priority two of elections that I care about. I doubt that I can get all of what I need to in for each election cycle unless or until I do posts on episodes of this show again at some point. But you know from the title of this post what I’m covering and I don’t think that there is much to explain about why I’m covering this so I might as well get this done.

Let’s start with the incumbent Democrat in the race who is a man named Gary Peters. He is in a bit of danger as Michigan went to Trump in 2016, a fact that applies to only one Democrat up for reelection this cycle in the senate and he is the only one who was elected six years ago since Doug Jones wasn’t elected until 2017 and only because a seat was vacated during that time. It did not seem too likely last I checked that he would lose, but it is possible.

The Republican challenger is John James. He is a black Republican so that could prove to be a bit of an advantage, but maybe not much of one. He is against the ACA, which becomes more and more of a ridiculous thing to want to get rid of during a terrible pandemic that has been only been doing better in states like this one due to resources needed by things that it provides.

The endorsement in the race couldn’t be clearer to me. Gary Peters is the best candidate in the race. He has done a lot of good in the senate and can continue to do more good if people vote for him again. I realize that a lot of early voting is under way in this country. So if you can vote for Michigan and haven’t already voted, then vote for Gary Peters for senate.

Politics: 2020 Iowa Senate Race

Since this post isn’t on the usual day, then I might as well get to three things. You will need first an explanation then both good news and bad news. The explanation is simple. I have a cheat that means a blog must be updated on a specific date. It was in the TV blog then moved to the Madam Secretary blog. With both of those blogs alternating Thursdays and this date being the date that needed used next, that cheat will mean that this blog will now get those updates. This leads to the good news. Because of the sheer number of these cheats that I have, this will mean that this blog will now be posted more than once a month for quite a while. The bad news is that this will no longer be on set days of the week and updates will be random at times or at least seem that way in the end.

Now for the actual post of this blog, it’s time to talk about the Iowa race for senate this year. This seat has been held by Democrats in the recent past and some sources are saying that this could be one of them that could flip back. The race is between Republican incumbent Joni Ernst and Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield. Theresa may not have as much experience as I would like, but she is better than a yes man, err, woman.

Joni is against Obamacare, EPA, and the Department of Education. She votes with Trump a lot. It is a bit over 90% of the time that she votes with him. That gives her the potential to be turned on since it might not be enough (Remember Mark Sanford?). She is also against the scientific consensus of climate change because why admit that a problem exists and needs solved?

When she was running in the primary back in 2014, she was criticized for missing votes to the point of being called AWOL. She shot back at that term and I agree that it was not the right term to use with a military person. But she did miss a lot of votes and not all of them were due to serving in the National Guard at the time.

So many people still don’t believe the severity of coronavirus and Joni is one of them as she thinks that the numbers are higher than they are in reality. She even siding with the QAnon conspiracy theory which she thinks proves her point about it.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/2/1974453/-Joni-Ernst-goes-QAnon-suggests-Iowa-healthcare-workers-are-bilking-the-system-with-COVID-19

What’s worse than her dismissal of the current pandemic was her treatment of Obama during the Ebola outbreak. Only two Americans died during that which is still two too many, but she seems to be completely fine with what I’m sure will be hundreds of thousands of deaths before this year is over, thinking that Trump is actually leading the way with what should be done.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/5/1958389/-Sen-Joni-Ernst-says-130-000-American-deaths-show-Trump-is-stepping-forward

After voting to acquit the guy in the White House of the Ukraine scandal, she became part of the dangerous belief that it is Biden and not Trump who was doing wrong in this scandal even though there has yet to be any proof of wrongdoing by Biden. She wants to impeach Biden despite criticizing the Democrats for what would effectively be the same thing that she thinks that they were doing during Trump’s impeachment.

https://www.axios.com/ernst-biden-impeachment-trump-iowa-2e633d71-2782-4daa-bd75-1e22b8a1ae7a.html

Joni seems to have a complicated history with rape. She says that it happened to her and there was an emotional scene displayed by her when a story about it was leaked, if I have my info about it right. She rightfully called out issues with the military when they had scandals with it. But she also voted to confirm someone accused of attempted rape to the Supreme Court and she isn’t in favor of voting for the Violence Against Women Act. What gives?

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/17/1919825/-Survivors-call-out-Joni-Ernst-for-sticking-with-the-NRA-to-block-the-Violence-Against-Women-Act?detail=emaildkre

Honestly, I know that Joni isn’t a good senator to most people. She might be one to Republicans that like her support of the guy in the White House, but not to Independents and certainly not Democrats. Thus, the vote is clear. If you can vote in Iowa, then vote for Theresa Greenfield for senate this year.

Politics: 2020 Missouri Governor Race

As we get to another upcoming election that I’m blogging about, I might as well skip the part where I explain why I’m blogging about it and just switch to the part where I explain the race in question. The incumbent governor of Missouri is Republican Mike Parsons. He is running for reelection. He is being challenged by Democrat Nicole Galloway.

Mike Parsons was not elected governor of Missouri. But he was elected lieutenant governor. After the previous governor, Eric Greitens, had numerous scandals and ultimately resigned from office, Mike took over. I forget what else he’s done offhand.

Of course, we should get to any issues that he has. There was a possible tax credit controversy that I don’t quite understand. He might have benefited from it going one way and just happened to get what he needed to when things went a certain way. I didn’t quite understand it.

There was also an appointment controversy over the fact that he appointed a new lieutenant governor when it seemed like it was outside of his power to do. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in his favor to make a new number two despite the fact that it would seem the constitution of the state stated that this wasn’t allowed. What is worth noting is that you’d think there would have been enough time to do a special election for it since he took office in June and the primary in 2018 wasn’t until August that year, which would have given plenty of time for all sorts of candidates to come into the race.

Now there may come a time when I start doing an analysis of various governors after they have left office in a different political blog. The main reason for that is so I can talk about all of the men and women who were governors during the coronavirus. Now, Mike wasn’t doing stay at home orders at first due to, I’m not sure. Maybe he just didn’t want to. He eventually caved in after numerous cities did what he wasn’t doing. But he fails to reign in the issues that constantly are happening at Lake of the Ozarks. I forget if Missouri is doing badly compared to other states in terms of coronavirus which could be due to the fact that less people live there.

He has made some controversial statements recently. The first one is covered in this article as he wound up telling people not to vote if they felt too sick or worried about going to the polls. He also is not expanding voting by mail, despite the fact that many want to do it during times like these that are going on today.

https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article243081151.html

Another point of controversy with him relates to the couple who were pointing guns at protesters who support the Black Lives Matter movement. He said that he might pardon them and we still don’t know if they will have charges filed against them yet at all.

Perhaps the biggest controversial thing that he has done or said relates to his dismissive way he is treating coronavirus during the school reopening debate. While it might be more like an ordinary sickness in the future, it isn’t like that yet as it is more like the flu when it first spread as a pandemic a century ago near the end of World War I. For one, there is no vaccine yet. For another, the infection rate remains high. This article explains a good deal about why reopening schools is a bad idea while including his ignorant quote about it.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/even-if-school-kids-survive-covid-19-they-won-t-be-spared-contagion-guilt/ar-BB179XHf?li=BBnbcA0&ocid=mailsignout

Now let’s get to Nicole Galloway. She is currently the only woman who holds state wide office in Missouri and the only Democrat as well. (This obviously excludes people who represent only part of the state, unless my information is wrong.) She would be the first female governor of the state of Missouri if she wins the election. She does have experience as she currently holds office and had held others too. I believe that she’s the auditor of the state, whatever that means, but am not sure right now as I forget to note it while preparing this post.

She is not without controversy of her own as there were possible issues with the Sunshine law being broken by her based on something that seems dumb relating to texts she got that were then deleted automatically. Since the Republican Attorney General seemed to clear her of any wrongdoing (and I haven’t even seen this touched upon in ads), then I wouldn’t worry about this being that big of an issue right now.

There is a dumb seeming thread to me among the political ads that I see in Missouri. It seems that all a Republican has to do to win is call an opponent too liberal and this liberal loses. How can they be duped so easily? I can only hope that this fails at some point in time, but am not sure that it will this election since Democrats seem posed to do badly with governor elections this year based on polls last I checked.

Now I might as well close this with the endorsement of who I think should win and thus, who people should vote for in the general election in the state of Missouri. While Mike is currently saying that he won’t run in 2024 if he wins this year, I say that it isn’t worth keeping him around for now. The only good vote of someone who would actually care about Missouri is Nicole Galloway and if you can vote in Missouri this election, then vote for her for governor.

Politics: 2020 Kentucky Senate Race

One of the most pivotal races in 2020 that isn’t for president is the Kentucky race for senate. The man who holds this senate seat has held it longer than I’ve been alive and has gradually gotten worse and worse despite never having been good in the first place. How doomed are we if we don’t ditch Mitch? Well, I might as well get through some of this now.

Mitch has a reputation of being the Grim Reaper. This is a label that he has given to himself. He is the incumbent in the race and is a Republican’t. He is the most powerful and dangerous of all of that party and that includes Trump. Mitch McConnell has only three endorsements, which isn’t much, especially since his challenger has a ton more. Now the Grim Reaper label is one that he calls himself since he causes Democratic legislation to die by not doing anything about it. He also has more ties to Russia than one would originally expect, ties that are certainly not legal, but maybe not something he will ever face repercussions on since people don’t seem to care. He doesn’t want to protect us from more Russian interference and is up for reelection this year. While many don’t like him, he might yet win again. But let’s not rule out his opponent.

The Democratic challenger in the race is Amy McGrath. She has yet to hold political office, but has run unsuccessfully for a seat before. She talked about the need of political investigations into the Iraq War, pointing out that more died in it than the Benghazi attack, yet there were only investigations into Benghazi. She is known for having moderate and even conservative beliefs as she has stated somewhat support of Trump, something she might have to do in order to win in Kentucky, even though you’d think she’d only have to work with him for 17 days if she does win her way to office. She also has strong Second Amendment beliefs, which I would expect of someone who served in the military. She is a far better candidate than some might give her credit for, especially considering who she is up against.

There are a lot of links that I would like to share some time, but am unsure if I will in the end. All you can hope is that I find some place to put them at some time. I have stuff that I was wanting to share from back when impeachment was the main story. Republican’ts did poorly at being impartial and Mitch was a reason why.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/22/1913331/-McConnell-is-also-covering-up-the-bad-behavior-of-Republican-senators-during-this-impeachment-trial

Him not doing a lot of the work that he’s supposed to do has drawn bipartisan outrage from 70 former senators who insist that he should do his job by casting votes on legislation that the House has passed. To not do this is horrible. If he doesn’t want it to pass, why not hold a vote and let it fail that way? Is he that convinced that it wouldn’t happen?

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/25/1921974/-70-former-senators-have-the-same-message-for-the-Republican-controlled-Senate-Do-your-job

Some people got stimulus checks in order to pay for things, but there were issues with that which lead to a lawsuit. Some people didn’t get the money that they probably should have in the end and that’s an issue.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/28/1941042/-Illinois-man-sues-Trump-McConnell-and-Mnuchin-over-exclusion-of-U-S-citizen-spouses-from-relief?detail=emaildkre

Mitch doesn’t seem to have good things going with judges and justices and I may never forgive him for what he did as a result. When confronted about his ways, he couldn’t even offer an answer when trying to change the story of what actually happened.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/9/1803081/-McConnell-sputters-as-news-host-refuses-to-accept-his-revisionist-Supreme-Court-history?detail=emaildkcc

There can be issues with the judges that Mitch has been tainting various courts with. He might even be doing illegal things in order to do it. Whether he is or isn’t, there are people who think that his role in this needs investigating. They are right.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/judge-asks-for-investigation-of-mcconnells-role-in-creating-federal-bench-vacancy/ar-BB13B2pT?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

Even though Mitch infamously refused to allow there to be a vote on Merrick Garland, he seems to not even care that another election is coming quicker than the vote was and is not following his own rules because it is the same timeframe and Mitch is seeking to make the courts bleed as much red as possible.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/16/mitch-mcconnell-urging-judges-retire-ahead-2020-election/5060303002/

Another issue that is going on is that Mitch is trying to blame the poor pandemic response that is going on right now on Obama. This far into the Trump administration, you can’t be blaming things on what Obama might have done or not done, especially when Obama left a pandemic response for the next administration.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/12/1944517/-McConnell-claims-Obama-didn-t-leave-Trump-a-pandemic-game-plan-Obama-very-literally-did

I won’t say anything here, other than read this link if you have time.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/20/1946411/-An-open-letter-to-Republican-Senate-Majority-Leader-Mitch-McConnell

At least there are some people within the Republican Party who want to turn on Mitch so they can do what needs to be done to deal with the pandemic. They haven’t done anything yet, but maybe they will break ranks with him in the future.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/21/1946696/-Unrest-blubbling-up-among-Republicans-who-have-to-fight-McConnell-to-act-again-on-COVID-19

With more racism going on in the country and horrible things like that going on as a result, we need an anti-lynching bill passed in the senate. Why won’t they do it? They really should. But the two Kentucky senators are not going to do this.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/4/1950391/-It-s-2020-and-the-Senate-won-t-pass-an-anti-lynching-bill-because-of-Rand-Paul-and-Mitch-McConnell?detail=emaildkre

The one thing that Mitch is certain will be his legacy will be the courts. He’s sadly right. It won’t be the legacy that he should be wanting as he has to fear monger his way into getting the courts to be the way that he wants to be.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/11/1952455/-McConnell-in-full-troll-mode-running-against-the-lawless-left-and-its-plans-to-pack-the-courts

Even in the rare event that he works with people of the other party, he does it while lying through his teeth about what all he has done and could do. If some people have a good idea that he does not originally embrace, he may take credit for it himself in the end since it would make him look good.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/2/1957845/-McConnell-lies-to-Kentucky-takes-credit-for-the-COVID-19-relief-bill-Pelosi-and-Schumer-negotiated

Of course, he has to support the horrifying and dangerous unemployed people are lazy myth. If I ever got the chance to have a one on one conversation with Steve Harvey, I’ll ask him if he likes being rich better like he is now or preferred the days when he was so poor he was living in a car instead. I mean, come the fuck on, people. Some people have good reasons why they shouldn’t work or aren’t able to work in the end and he will support the myths that people are just lazy and want to live off the government, something that couldn’t be further from the truth.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/1/1957512/-McConnell-Republicans-say-extra-unemployment-and-not-raging-COVID-19-keeps-people-from-working?detail=emaildkre

Something that I want to see in ads from the DNC or some sort of organization that either supports Democrats or is against Republicans would relate to all the Congressmen, Senators, and Congresswomen who felt that the voters should decide Trump’s fate. We shouldn’t just decide Trump’s fate as we should vote out those who didn’t vote him out of office as well since that is what they wanted. They wanted to give voters the choice so we would choose to get rid of Trump and them as well. I know this isn’t something meant for just this election, but figured that I might as well say it now and didn’t know where else to say it.

While most of this post has been about Mitch McConnell and all that he has done wrong or is still doing wrong, I should remind you the alternative again, Amy McGrath. She may not be the most liberal that she could be, but she is far better than Mitch or any third party candidate in this race. Thus, my endorsement in the race is the only choice that makes sense: Amy McGrath. If you can vote in Kentucky in 2020, then be sure to vote for her for senate.

Politics: 2020 Indiana Governor Race

I was wanting to do this post sooner, but the primary was delayed, even though there was only one candidate for each of the major parties in the race at one point leading into the primary. Thus, we have the two candidates and I need to explain who both of them are while ignoring any of the third party candidates in the race.

The incumbent governor of Indiana is Republican Eric Holcomb. He was once the lieutenant governor under the previous governor, Mike Pounce. (Trump said that was his vice-president’s name once.) Despite Mike Pounce originally running in the last Indiana governor race in 2016, when he dropped out and Eric was allowed to be a late entry into the race as a replacement, Eric wound up winning the race and became governor as a result.

My irritation with him came from an ad he did in the 2018 Illinois governor race where I dubbed him one of the four horsemen. Joining two others governors, namely Scott Walker and Eric Greitens, he endorsed former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner and blamed all of the problems that Bruce had on the admittedly terrible Illinois speaker of the house, Michael Madigan. I was not liking him as a result.

While looking up more information about him in preparation for this post, I wind up learning about a possible Amazon factory scandal that might have happened as he or people in his administration might have tried to get a factory there in that state using questionable and possibly illegal means. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. It seemed like it was covered well, this issue, and there were no problems that I could make sense of.

I think that I changed to more neutral feelings towards Eric when covid19 hit since some of the governors formed an alliance. Eric joined one that was formed with others from all the states that border Indiana and a few others as well. This alliance will affect me and what I want to do in politics in the future. The alliance includes Eric Holcomb, Illinois Democrat J. B. Pritzker, Minnesota Democrat Tim Walz, Kentucky Democrat Andy Beshear, Wisconsin Democrat Tony Evers, Ohio Republican Mike DeWine, and Michigan Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. It seems that Eric still has friendships with other governors on his mind, but now, it is good.

The fact that he can work with so many Democrats and the replacement to Bruce Rauner proves that he might not be as bad as I thought that he was. It is also worth wondering how much of this alliance is just for show as there might not be too much coordination between these states in the end. But I may not want Eric out like I used to.

Still, it is worth noting that there is a Democrat in the race. This man, Woody Myers, was health commissioner and ran for office, but hasn’t held it yet. I couldn’t find out that much about him and don’t know if Eric is too bad a leader to need replaced.

Thus, surprising me and tons of others, I see no choice but to endorse Eric Holcomb in this race for office. He isn’t such a terrible leader that he needs replaced. He has shown to at least me that he is willing to work or at least seem like he works with members of the other party. I also do plan to write all of the governors of this alliance a letter at some point and I may have to owe Eric a bit of an apology. I could turn back to hate him again in the future, but don’t know yet if I will and can only hope that he doesn’t do anything I don’t like again, especially before the election this year. Maybe he’ll even make me actually like him.

Politics: 2020 Presidential Primary Results

While technically not decided yet, the 2020 primaries for the major party candidates are more or less over, even if Biden, the only candidate left in the race, still hasn’t gotten all of the delegates he needs to yet. I will talk some about what has happened thus far in the race while talking about the results of it and whether or not something could change with either party. I will also share some Daily Kos articles of varying importance since they are a bit outdated to put on my own facebook page where I was wanting to put it on originally.

Let’s start by talking about the Republican results. It shouldn’t be too surprising that the guy in the White House got an easy win. But you may not have known or remember that there were people besides Trump that were in the race on the Republican side. There were four people of varying importance, one of whom is not worth mentioning and is trying to get a third party nod now, even though this should be against sore loser laws. Former Congressman and governor Mark Standford was in the race, but dropped out before Iowa. Former State Representative from Illinois, Joe Walsh, dropped out after the Iowa primary. I was planning to vote for him at one point. Seriously. The only other major person was Bill Weld who dropped out only after Trump got all the delegates needed to secure the nomination. Bill was lucky enough to get one single delegate in New Hampshire. The RNC had no problem rigging the race against those who aren’t Trump. They openly did this too.

Bill Weld may not have done that well in the race, but people did keep track of the race and that he might have done better than a lot of other people did or could have. Here’s a link to a story about his time in the race.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/11/1918594/-Something-strange-is-happening-in-New-Hampshire-on-the-other-side?utm_campaign=trending

Let’s face it: Trump doesn’t care about if the election is fair or not this year. He didn’t want to admit that Russia hacked us in 2016 because it would make him look bad and undermine his win. He also would help them do what they need to in order to help him win again. And it violates his oath of office as it is treason. Russia will probably try to strike us again.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/24/1921475/-Trump-s-helping-Moscow-muck-with-our-elections-fits-the-strict-constitutional-definition-of-treason

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/21/1920837/-Russia-is-interfering-in-the-2020-election-and-Republicans-are-moving-to-protect-the-interference?detail=emaildkre

At least Joe Walsh, one of the people who originally supported the guy in the White House has since turned on the man and will refuse to support him. Thanks Joe for joining the never Trump crowd and be sure to stay here until the end. Here’s a link to his new side.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/25/1921963/-Wow-Joe-Wash-I-never-liked-that-guy-but-still-you-should-read-this?utm_campaign=trending

For some reason, the guy in the White House was wanting Bernie Sanders as his opponent. This did not happen in the end. It might be a good thing. But why did Trump want Bernie to be his opponent? Simply put, despite the polling saying that Bernie would beat Trump, Trump still felt that he had a better chance against Bernie. He even openly told Republicans to abandon their party’s primary in open primary states, especially when they didn’t have one. Here’s a link to a story about this:

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/28/politics/trump-south-carolina-rally-democratic-primary/index.html?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion

Meanwhile, the Democratic race had tons of people in it, but they all dropped out over time leaving only Biden left. I hated how Elizabeth Warren’s campaign failed the way it did. So many people thought that it was too late for her and they were sadly right about that. I won’t go into the failures of all the candidates. While I wanted Bernie Sanders to win, I understand that he did a lot of things that brought his campaign down like his 30% comment or other things that did not make as much news as it could have. Don’t believe the narrative that things were rigged against Bernie as that is as patently false as that thing on Trump’s head. For whatever reason, people wanted Joe Biden to be the nominee. I don’t think that he was a safe source (nor do I believe that such a thing exists, especially after the 2016 election where Hillary Clinton was the so called safe choice), but I will be voting for him unless he somehow isn’t the nominee.

One of the more high profile candidates in the Democratic race who left the race before the first primary happened was Cory Booker. He may not have done as well as many of us were wanting him to. But I don’t think that his failure relates to the reason mentioned here.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/13/1911285/-Fox-News-host-offers-up-old-school-racist-reason-for-why-Booker-may-have-left-the-presidential-race?detail=emaildkre

There was a lot of niceness in the Democratic primary, despite how it might have come off to some in the debates. Still, when people looked for their friendship outside of when they had to face each other, they were able to show that even after these fights on stage.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/20/1912363/-Warren-Sanders-shake-hands-march-arm-in-arm-laugh-and-chat-together-at-today-s-MLK-event?utm_campaign=trending

Sadly, not all went well in the first state. There was a good reason why, based on info that came out later about it that you may not have known. While it was a disaster, it might not have been just one that the Democrats did as people might think.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/27/1914440/-Iowa-s-undemocratic-caucuses-shut-out-too-many-voters?detail=emaildkre

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/6/1917075/-Iowa-Dem-Chair-Said-The-Phone-Lines-Crashed-Because-Internet-Trolls-Got-The-Number-And-Flooded-Lines?utm_campaign=trending

It only makes sense to get rid of Trump at this point. I don’t know what is wrong with all of the people who support him still despite all the terrible things he has said and done. The rest of the world outside of Russia and maybe North Korea hate Trump.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/16/1911563/-We-can-regain-the-world-s-trust-by-dumping-Trump?detail=emaildkre

What’s also worth noting is that even some Republicans are now turning on Trump. In addition to what Joe Walsh has said, others that you may not have heard of as much but are still as important to the political world as other Republicans have endorsed Biden.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/15/1937573/-Republicans-Endorse-Biden?utm_campaign=trending

It is also worth mentioning the allegations against Biden. It a moment that was a bit funny, Trump brought up his own allegations when asked to talk about Biden’s. Trump strangely felt that someone other than him was falsely accused of something, going as far to imply that it was false, these Biden allegations, if only because his worse ones are believed to be false (by him) as well. The woman who accused Biden, Tara Reade, was not vocal any time before this, at least, not with her current allegations, at least. Unlike Christine Blasey Ford, Tara’s story has changed a lot and these links help prove more against these claims of her.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/29/1941307/-The-evidence-you-need-to-see-regarding-Reade-and-Biden

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/30/1941560/-Veteran-federal-prosecutor-dismantles-piece-by-piece-the-Reade-Biden-accusations-in-USA-Today?utm_campaign=trending

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/2/1942126/--New-Sexual-harassment-and-assault-absent-from-Reade-complaint?utm_campaign=trending

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/4/1942523/-Why-we-know-Tara-Reade-is-probably-lying

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/4/1942461/-What-happens-when-a-claim-of-abuse-is-chased-down-when-it-is-clearly-non-credible?utm_campaign=trending

There was another accusation that was made against Biden, but it barely made the news just to how unlikely it was to have happened. I mean, can you read this link and say anything that was credible in this claim?

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/2/1942214/-Second-accusation-Against-Biden-Goes-Down-in-Flames

Going back to Republicans against Trump, there is one called the Lincoln Project that is called Mourning in America. I have a link to a story about it and a video of this ad itself. We need to remember that Trump is not what a real Republican is like, but Lincoln is.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/4/1942455/-Republican-group-rolls-out-a-brutal-anti-Trump-ad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_yG_-K2MDo

As we look forward to the election for president this year, don’t both with any of the third party candidates or trying to put Bernie Sanders as a write-in. It is effectively Trump versus Biden now. It only makes sense to vote for Biden for president. Unless the Democrats are somehow putting forth a different nominee in the end, then Biden is the candidate to vote for. He will be quite a great president. And if Trump somehow isn’t the nominee, then still vote for Biden or the Democrat running for president.

Politics: 2020 Illinois Senate Race

Here’s a simple post for a future senate race this year. I will tell you about what has gone on with it thus far. The primary has already taken place, unlike other races I plan to cover in the future. A lot of primaries have been delayed. But I figure that I might as well get to this post.

Dick Durbin is the incumbent Democrat who is also running for reelection. He has been in office since 1997, having gotten elected the year before. He is the Senate Majority Whip right now. He has seen the departure of the five other senators the occupied seat three in the time that he has spent in the senate thus far.

The Republican in the race is Mark Curran. He’s an attorney and former sheriff. He used to be a Democrat, but switched parties in 2008 after the scandals of Rod Blagojevich. He doesn’t have much to his name thus far.

There is a third party candidate that is in the race running as an independent named Willie Wilson. He can’t even seem to decide what party he is in, having run unsuccessfully for mayor of Chicago and president of the United States, but hardly appearing on any ballots in the second case and not having any chance of winning as a result. He was in the Democratic primary, but not even in this state, from what I remember.

A notable fact about the races for senate in this seat in Illinois is just how uninteresting they tend to be. I had no idea there even was an election this cycle in 2008. Dick Durbin always seems to just coast his way to the win each and every time, spending little, if any, on ads downstate or possibly anywhere in the state.

I’m just going to get to the closing where I endorse Dick Durbin. I see no reason why he would lose the race or any reason not to vote for him. It’s hardly a contest and I don’t think that much else can be said about the race in general. Dick Durbin is going to win as no one has ever come close to even trying to be that competitive against him.

Politics: 2020 General Governor Races

While the world has slowly become a stranger place, some may have to remember that there are still elections going on in some states if they haven’t happened already. Just because they have covered the presidential primary doesn’t mean that they’ve yet done the races for this or other offices yet. But I figured that I might as well cover what I can of this after talking about the biggest news story of the year thus far.

The craziest thing that has happened in the world since 2000 wasn’t the election of Trump or 9/11, but it was the covid19 pandemic. The virus has already delayed the election in Ohio where they defied a court order and pushed their primary dates back. Other things to note regarding the elections for governor would be how each governor handled the virus in question or even if they lasted beyond it as they could have died or at least be affected between now and then. Did they go too far? Did they not go far enough? What affects will this have? We’ll see.

I forgot to write down some things like party affiliation of those in control of each state or who was running for reelection versus who couldn’t. What I know is that there will be elections for the office of governor in the states of Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.

Now I’m going to write what I feel are some interesting facts about some of the races and those who are in office. Mike Parsons of Missouri ascended to the office after his predecessor resigned. Gary Hart of Utah also ascended to the office. I know that Mike benefited from a scandal which brought forth his predecessor’s resignation. I don’t know why Gary’s predecessor resigned from office.

One of the most potentially interesting races this cycle is the one in West Virginia. The last Republican governor of West Virginia elected was in 1996 and left office in 2001. And yet, they have a Republican governor now. Did this person ascended to the office? The answer is now. Jim Justice of West Virginia was elected as a Democrat and switched to being a Republican at about six months into his term. There are multiple Republicans and Democrats in the race. It will be as much a referendum on Jim Justice as the Republicans will be making it a vote as to who of them is the real conservative in the race and what Democrat wants to reclaim what they feel is rightfully theirs.

I won’t know right away which races I’ll want to cover in the future. In my mind, the main ones that I care most about are Indiana and Missouri since they both border Illinois. Eric Holcomb had endorsed my state’s former governor and so was the Missouri governor who has since resigned from office. (Wisconsin’s governor at the time also did this and has also left office, losing reelection like my state’s old governor.) I plan to donate to the Indiana Democrat in the governor race. With me having no beef with the current Missouri governor, I might pay attention to one of the other governor races and West Virginia might fit this bill. I can’t be sure that there will be a post of that in this blog, but do hope that it will happen in the future.

Here is where the post ends. I would include a schedule of primary dates, but don’t see a point in that as I don’t know them, the dates could be subject to change, and I’m sure that some of them might have already happened at some point anyways. So keep in touch as the general election is still set for November 3, 2020 this year and I hope to be back with more soon.

Politics: 2020 General Class Two Senate Races

With the presidential election happening this year, I might as well explain two other important races that are going on. One is the governor races. The other is the senate races. Not only are all of the class two seats up this cycle, we are also having two special elections for two class three seats. I might as well do a general run through of some of what’s going on in this post and include a schedule of what dates certain races are. I can’t promise that I will get into more of the specific ones that I want to as the year goes on, but will try as things go on.

States with a senate election this year: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona (special), Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia (regular and special), Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico. North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The last time the class two senate seats were up for election was in 2014. That was a was boon for Republicans as they took the senate by winning a lot of seats then. The previous time the class two seats were up were in 2008 and that was a boon for Democrats then. In case you are wondering, the Republicans last made gains senate elections in 2018. The Democrats last made gains in senate races in 2016.

What is the set up for the elections this year? Well, the Republicans are defending 23 seats and that includes the 2 special elections. The Democrats are defending 12 seats. If Democrats win all the elections or all but one of the elections, they will have at least 67 people in the senate. There are 53 Republicans in office right now. There are 45 Democrats and 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats. If Republicans will all the seats this cycle, they will have 62 seats. It is highly unlikely that either party gets a filibuster proof majority after the election. It would be more likely for the Democrats to get it than Republicans.

The way polling is going right now, some seats in Republican hands are constantly ranked as toss-up, meaning it could go either way. The only one of either party currently ranked as flip is Doug Jones. Current polling suggests that it is unlikely Democrats retake a majority at the moment. But polling could change and be wrong entirely.

Now let’s get to the people in the races. On the Democratic side, Tom Udall of New Mexico is retiring from office. Every other Democrat is running for reelection. I realize that I did not keep track of which party has control of each state’s class two seat. On the Republican side, there are three Republicans are retiring: Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Pat Roberts of Kansas. As of yet, the only incumbent that we don’t know whether or not he is running from either party is Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma. He hasn’t decided yet and another Republican is in the race. The other Republican seats all have the incumbents running.

I did a quick check to see who of what party was in these races. A lot of them have third party candidates in them. What is notable is that there are no Democrats currently in the Alaska or Arkansas races. Every other race has both major parties in it. With Alaska’s senate race, there is still time for Democrats to file for it. With the Arkansas race, the filing deadline has past and the one Democrat who was in the race dropped out mere hours after the filing deadline was over. I don’t know if the Democrats can have a candidate in that race right now. It may still be possible or it may not be. What I do know is that there are third party candidates in both of these races, although there is no guarantee that they caucus with the Democrats.

The senate races are considered very important this year, as they always are. This could be an issue for a Democratic president if the senate remains in Republican hands and they continue to thwart his or her efforts like they did with Obama’s last two years in office. What could be quite good is if somehow Trump wins reelection and the senate is blue, making many of his efforts impossible to achieve without executive orders and court wins. The unlikely situation of 67 or 68 seats being in Democrats hands after this election would not happen with Trump winning again. Also at play, possibly, is the US House of Representatives. But I won’t be doing a post about that and hope that you can do your own research about that.

I will be talking about the schedule of all the senate races this year. Note that I don’t know if the primary for president will also be for certain states just because they have senate election at the same time. I know that for at least two of these states, they have already had their primaries for president. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out when your state’s primary or primaries are outside of this schedule. I don’t know what could potentially change with dates. Also note that all of the states are having primaries of some sort for all sorts of various offices. I leave it up for you in order to figure out when you should be voting. Now I’m going to end this post with the schedule of all the senate elections this year. I’ll go into more detail with some of them if I can in the future in later months’ posts.

Schedule (all are Tuesdays unless otherwise noted, in 2020 unless otherwise noted, and primaries outside of November 3 or where otherwise noted)

March 3- Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas

March 10- Mississippi

March 17- Illinois

March 31- Alabama run-off (if needed), Arkansas run-off (if needed), Mississippi run-off (if needed)

May 12- Nebraska, North Carolina run-off (if needed), West Virginia

May 19- Georgia (regular election for class two seat), Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon

May 26- Texas run-off (if needed)

June 2- Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota

June 9- Maine, South Carolina, Virginia

June 23- South Carolina run-off (if needed)

June 30- Colorado, Oklahoma

July 21- Georgia run-off (if needed for regular class two seat)

August 4- Arizona, Kansas, Michigan

August 6 (Thursday)- Tennessee

August 11- Minnesota, South Dakota run-off (if needed)

August 18- Alaska, Wyoming

August 25- Oklahoma run-off (if needed)

September 1- Massachusetts

September 8- New Hampshire, Rhode Island

September 15- Colorado

November 3- general election, jungle primary for Louisiana senate race and Georgia special election for class three seat, regular election for Georgia’s class two seat

December 5 (Saturday)- Louisiana general senate election (if needed)

January 5, 2021- Georgia general special senate election (if needed)