2026 Congressional Elections

[mtutiger]

1 hour ago, RatkoVarda said:

more likely than not this is coming

Something may well come.... but people kinda assume the "something", whatever it might be, will end up working. But if people are paying out the ass on gasoline and people are as angry and upset at Donald Trump as they are, particularly in a state like Maine that leans blue, it may not work at all.

Expect the unexpected, folks.

Edited 1 hour ago by mtutiger

[mtutiger]

32 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Normie Dems won big in New Jersey and Virginia. It is not the political environment we are in. A bunch of New England Dems, who are mostly old, decided this caricature is what will save the party. 

Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill are both much different candidates than Janet Mills.

[Motown Bombers]

3 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill are both much different candidates than Janet Mills.

Besides age, how so?

[mtutiger]

It's crazy that in this thread there's so much attention spent on Platner and Maine voters being idiots, but very little spent discussing the campaign that Mills ran (and how terrible it was from all accounts).

Even setting aside the age thing, she transparently didn't seem invested in the race to the degree that she needed to be. And as a result, she didn't afford the voters much of a choice. Again, saying this as someone who doesn't particularly like Platner and frankly find myself distrustful of the guy, but the situation is just not all that surprising given the circumstances. Hard for me to get worked up about it.

[mtutiger]

4 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Besides age, how so?

First off, you say "besides age" as if age isn't a big deal, particularly at this moment in time for the Democratic Party. It is a huge deal for voters, particularly after Biden was forced to drop out in 2024, after RBG hung on too long to her seat, after watching four D representatives keel over in the past year and a half in a very divided house.

But even setting aside the age thing, Spanberger and Sherrill both ran races that were effective to winning support over to their side in the primaries and both were clearly up the challenge of the jobs they were running. Mills, with the campaign she ran, didn't demonstrate any of these things.

Voters are sending a message here, whether you and I like it or not. Hope the party establishment learns going forward.... to be fair, they have had some recruiting successes this time around landing Cooper, Peltola, getting Brown to run again, etc., but this was a pretty clear miss on their part.

Edited 1 hour ago by mtutiger

[Motown Bombers]

3 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

First off, you say "besides age" as if age isn't a big deal, particularly at this moment in time for the Democratic Party. It is a huge deal for voters, particularly after Biden was forced to drop out in 2024, after RBG hung on too long to her seat, after watching four D representatives keel over in the past year and a half in a very divided house.

But even setting aside the age thing, Spanberger and Sherrill both ran races that were effective to winning support over to their side in the primaries and both were clearly up the challenge of the jobs they were running. Mills, with the campaign she ran, didn't demonstrate any of these things.

Voters are sending a message here, whether you and I like it or not. Hope the party establishment learns going forward.... to be fair, they have had some recruiting successes this time around landing Cooper, Peltola, getting Brown to run again, etc., but this was a pretty clear miss on their part.

Voters didn’t send any message. There hasn’t been an election in Maine. Platner hasn’t won. In 2024, when Biden was forced out, Maine elected 80 year old Angus King. Platner could run for governor and he could choose who replaces Mills if she died. Republicans aren’t attacking Susan Collins for being too old. The only difference between Mills and Sherril or Spanberger is age. Democrats have fully given into the Republican ageism. 

[Motown Bombers]

The original comparison I was making was Spanberger and Sherril to Platner. Platner is supposed to be the new environment but Normie Dems won big. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Motown Bombers

[mtutiger]

11 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Voters didn’t send any message. There hasn’t been an election in Maine. Platner hasn’t won.

If Mills thought she could win, why did she drop out?

[Motown Bombers]

Just now, mtutiger said:

If Mills thought she could win, why did she drop out?

She ran out of money. She probably wasn’t going to win but voters haven’t decided anything yet. 

[mtutiger]

1 minute ago, Motown Bombers said:

She ran out of money. 

Right. But if there were a greater demand for what she was selling, she probably would have had no troubles raising the money necessary to be competitive to Platner in the primary. But the polls of Mainers continually painted a different story...

This is sort of the problem to me... I understand the skepticism of Platner given what we know about the guy. But the qualitative and quantitative evidence suggests that she was never going to be a competitive candidate to Platner, even with his flaws. It was a miss on recruitment by the establishment here, it is what it is.

[Motown Bombers]

5 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Right. But if there were a greater demand for what she was selling, she probably would have had no troubles raising the money necessary to be competitive to Platner in the primary. But the polls of Mainers continually painted a different story...

This is sort of the problem to me... I understand the skepticism of Platner given what we know about the guy. But the qualitative and quantitative evidence suggests that she was never going to be a competitive candidate to Platner, even with his flaws. It was a miss on recruitment by the establishment here, it is what it is.

She received more donations from Mainers than Platner. Platner is getting bankrolled from out of state. Polls in Maine are also notoriously unreliable. Just ask Maine senator Sara Gideon. 

[Motown Bombers]

BTW what is even “establishment”? Is establishment being in congress for 35 years never having actually held any sort of job in the private sector?