And if anyone thinks Republicans will treat Democrats fairly, whether in terms of committee assignments or whatever, they are cockeyed optimists. Same thing for anyone who seriously thinks Republicans will pay a political price at the polls for their behavior; for anyone who believes they will, I simply refer you to how Republicans fared in 2010 (massive gains) and 2014 (ditto) and 2016 (the White House), despite their disgraceful behavior in Congress and toward President Obama more broadly. In short, despite gaining 15 seats, plus HD-94 which should have gone to Shelly Simonds almost any way you look at it, plus possibly HD-28 (that election was totally messed up), we appear to be f’ed. Grrrrrr.
P.S. My understanding is that all legal options are on the table for Democrats, stay tuned…
Virginia Democrats won 54%-44% in the House popular vote in 2017 (55%-45% in two-party vote) and won 49 of 100 seats. Couldn’t entirely break the GOP gerrymander, though some of that is also the clustering of Democratic-leaning voters.
— Geoffrey Skelley (@geoffreyvs) January 4, 2018
UPDATE: Shelly Simonds speaks to the press following the drawing.
Simonds still won’t say if she’ll definitely ask for a recount. Here’s her discussing why she thinks power-sharing in the House would have been important: pic.twitter.com/Vy7iOs6Hbu
— Reema Amin (@reemadamin) January 4, 2018
