Wednesday News: Dems Take House, Rs Hold Senate; “Trump’s free ride from Congress just ended”; Kaine, Wexton, Luria, Spanberger All Win in Virginia

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, November 7.

• Democrats Capture Control of House; G.O.P. Holds Senate (“Propelled by an unusually high turnout that illustrated the intensity of the backlash against Mr. Trump, Democrats claimed at least 26 House seats on the strength of their support in suburban and metropolitan districts that were once bulwarks of Republican power but where voters have recoiled from the president’s demagoguery on race.”)
• Two Years After Trump’s Victory, Voters Erect an Impediment to His Power
• A great day for democracy (“The new House majority will restore what’s been missing for two years: a check on the Trump administration’s excesses.”)
• There Is Now an Institution of the American Government That Isn’t Controlled By—or Afraid of—Donald Trump (“For the first time in two years, there will be oversight of the Executive Branch.”)
• For Democrats — and America — a Sigh of Relief (“The party didn’t get everything it wanted. But it got what it and the country need.”)
• Trump’s free ride from Congress just ended
• Governor Results Could Shape Political Landscape for a Decade (“Kansas voters rejected the sharply conservative message of Kris Kobach, electing the Democrat Laura Kelly as governor, a surprise outcome in a Republican stronghold.”)
• Trump’s Narrative vs. Pelosi’s Subpoenas (“Both sides see a victory in Tuesday’s results. But the ground is shifting beneath Republicans’ feet.”)
• The Midterms Mark a Turning Point in the Trump Presidency (“A Democratic majority in the House will not only thwart Trump’s legislative ambitions; it could also intensify the state of crisis and siege in Washington.”)
• House Dems Already Have Their List of Trump Scandals to Investigate. Here It Is. (“The subpoenas are coming.”)
• How Democrats Took The House On Election Night
• Key races upend conventional wisdom, reveal climate action is a winning issue (“Strong advocates for clean energy defeat Republican opponents across the country.” Except for Florida, Texas, etc, etc.)
• 4 winners and 2 losers from the 2018 midterm elections (“Winner: the blue wall”)
• The Democrats Are Back, and Ready to Take On Trump (“The party could roll to a 20-seat House majority after picking up dozens of seats in cities, suburbs, and even rural areas.”)
• Republicans declared war on Nancy Pelosi — and she won (“Hundreds of millions of dollars. They do this because they are bankrupt of ideas.”)
• The Florida Senate race between Bill Nelson and Rick Scott is too close to call and could head to a recount: NBC News (Rick Scott is utterly heinous; if he wins, this is terrible news.)
• Democratic Control Of The House Is Trouble For Trump, And 6 Other Election Takeaways
• Gillum concedes defeat in bid for governor as Florida Senate race remains close
  (That totally sucks. F’ing Florida elected a racist, climate science denier, scumbag, etc.)
• Florida Is Poised to Continue Its Unbeaten Streak of Screwing Up the American Republic (Florida is so f’ed up.)
• Kyrsten Sinema vs. Martha McSally: Arizona Senate race too close to call (“Arizona tight Senate race likely will not be called until later this week since there are over 1 million outstanding early voting ballots that still need to be counted”)
• Ted Cruz wins Texas Senate race, fending off challenge from Beto O’Rourke (Very close…48.2% for O’Rourke ain’t bad!)
• Stacey Abrams vows to remain in Georgia governor’s race until “every vote gets counted”
• McCaskill concedes defeat to Hawley in Missouri Senate race (Sigh…I guess McCaskill’s proverbial “nine lives” ran out.)
• Florida ballot initiative giving former felons the right to vote passes (That’s great news!)
• Democrat Rosen ousts GOP’s Heller from Nevada Senate seat (Also great news!)
• California Props. 5, 8, 11, 12: Chickens uncaged, dialysis profits uncapped (Good news on the animal welfare front.)
• Lamont Leads Stefanowski In Connecticut Governor’s Race With All But New Haven Counted (“As of 6 a.m., all of the state’s 169 municipalities except for New Haven and Middlebury had submitted complete results to the secretary of the state’s office and Lamont maintained a comfortable lead.”)
• Democrat Malinowski projected to defeat GOP Rep. Lance in New Jersey: NBC News
• Republicans Lost the Suburbs
• The Democratic Victories of 2018 Feel Mediocre. That’s Because Expectations Got Out of Hand.
• Scott Walker Finally Lost (“Democrat Tony Evers campaigned hard against the incumbent’s record on education and health care.” Good riddance!!!)
• Why Trump’s Culture War Lost the Suburbs – But Held the Senate (“Tuesday’s results confirm that, in turning America’s culture wars into nuclear conflicts, the president has ripped the divide between America’s high-density areas, which are typically underrepresented in the Senate (and to a lesser extent, in the House) – and its low-density areas, which are typically overrepresented in Congress – wide open.”)
• Trump’s endorsements bring mixed bag of results (“All told, his record of endorsements on Tuesday was 48-32, with a handful of elections still too close to call.”)
• Joe Manchin reelected in West Virginia: the most conservative Senate Democrat survives
• Kevin Cramer ousts Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota (Sigh…)
• Marsha Blackburn beats Phil Bredesen to retain Tennessee seat for GOP (Blackburn is bonkers!)
• Georgia’s 6th District race is still too close to call
• Republican Rep. Steve King hangs on to his seat, but just barely (White, rural Republicans still don’t mind having a white supremacist and all-around scumbag/lunatic representing them. Niiiice.)
• Sean Hannity and the end of the Fox News standards charade
• ‘It disturbs me to my core’: Fox News staffers express outrage over Hannity’s rally appearance (Then quit!)
• The telling measure of Trump’s weakness (“The sweeping nature of Democrats’ House takeover shouldn’t be underappreciated.”)
• Republican Gov. Larry Hogan wins a second term in deep-blue Maryland
• Women carry Democrats to victory in Virginia House races
• Democrats Wexton, Luria and Spanberger unseat Republicans Comstock, Taylor and Brat, while Kaine cruises in Virginia
• Comstock loss means D.C. region’s congressional delegation is entirely blue
• Fueled by suburban votes, Spanberger beats Brat in 7th District House race
• Democrats flip three House seats in Virginia to take 7-4 advantage
• Analysis: Democrats remake Va. map
• Rep. Morgan Griffith cruises to re-election in Southwest Virginia’s 9th District (With Brat’s defeat, Griffith will now be Virginia’s clear, #1 embarrassment!)
• Man Who Writes Bigfoot Erotica Now a U.S. Congressman
• Editorial: Virginia should make it easier to vote
• Republican Ben Cline defeats Democrat Jennifer Lewis in 6th District race (Not at all surprising in this deep-red district, but sad nonetheless, as Jennifer Lewis is a superb person while Ben Cline is a hard-right idiot.)
• McEachin wins re-election for second term in 4th District
• Republican Rob Wittman wins re-election in Virginia’s 1st congressional district
• Virginia voters back two proposed constitutional amendments on targeted tax breaks
• Democrat Elaine Luria ousts Rep. Scott Taylor in 2nd Congressional District (#Petitiongate guy is toast. Sad!)
• Predictions–Mid term elections (I’m including this simply because John Fredericks’ predictions are almost always so laughably wrong – Comstock of course got CRUSHED by Wexton; Brat of course did NOT beat Spanberger; Taylor of course did NOT beat Luria; Democrats of course DID take back the House…)
• In Virginia Beach mayor’s race, longtime councilman will become the new mayor
• Schmitt wins Henrico Brookland supervisor seat (“The Henrico County Board of Supervisors will have a Republican majority again following Dan Schmitt’s victory over Danny Plaugher in Tuesday’s special election for the Brookland District seat. In his first bid for public office, Schmitt won the district after Democrats converted the seat last year. He will succeed Courtney Lynch, who resigned in June after winning in a special election last year that gave Democrats a majority on the board for the first time in decades.”)
• Vihstadt loses Arlington County Board race in high-turnout election (Congratulations to Matt de Ferranti!)
• Democrat Miles holds narrow lead over Republican Childrey for Chesterfield top prosecutor
• McNamara wins special election to hold 8th House District for GOP (Deep-red district, totally unsurprising result.)
• Lateef wins special election for school board chair (Go Babur!)
• Much improved today and not bad tomorrow; scattered showers likely Friday