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A Vice News review has found that at least 30 state lawmakers publicly involved in sexual misconduct scandals since 2017 are up for re-election this year. Despite those allegations, 16 of those candidates won their primaries — which are now over in all but one state — and advanced to the November general election. Two of those 16 lawmakers, who collectively represent 10 states, are almost guaranteed to be re-elected, since they won’t face a challenger come November.
55% to 41%
A new USC Dornslife/Los Angeles Times poll found Democrats leading Republicans in a generic ballot test, 55% to 41%. Key takeaway: “Likely voters disapprove of Trump’s overall performance in office by 57% to 39%, the poll found. Almost half of likely voters, 49%, said they ‘strongly’ disapprove, while just under one-quarter, 24%, strongly approve.”
49%
A new Associated Press-NORC poll finds that more young people now say they are feeling anxious about the midterm elections, compared to July. Nearly half of young Americans ages 15 to 34 now say that they are anxious about the midterms, up from 36% in the earlier poll. The increase is most pronounced among young Democrats: 61% expressed anxiety compared with 39% in July.
89%
NBC News: “Republican House primaries produced about 24% more votes than they did in 2014. But Democratic House primaries in 2018 produced 89% more votes than they did four years ago… That’s nearly a doubling in the number Democratic House votes this year and it’s enough to give Democrats a big lead over Republicans in votes this year. In total, 4.3 million more Democrats voted in House primaries this year than Republicans.”
“There’s a real likelihood that they not only win the House, but they win it by 10 or 12 more seats than they need.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by the New York Times, on midterm election prospects for Democrats.
“We won a district where we can nominate a bag of cement… and we won by 1,000 votes. That means… they are playing 50 seats deep in our infield and almost winning. What does that tell you about our midterms?”
— GOP strategist Mike Murphy, quoted by The Atlantic, on what last night’s Ohio special election says for the November midterms.
Why come out and vote for the Democratic Party? There was no message to say: Here’s what we’ve done. I wish the party or whoever had done a national media campaign and say, here’s what you get when you elect Democrats. But there was no — what was the message out of ’14? I’m asking you rhetorically — do you know? No. What was it?
— Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), quoted by Politico.
I was never going to run away from the president. It was not even in consideration. I support the president. I think the president has been right. I mean, look at the numbers, look at the job growth, sustained job growth—the greatest in American history. The. Greatest. In. American. History. Why didn’t people run on that?
— Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D), quoted by the Daily Beast, on why he was one of the few Democrats who survived the 2014 midterm elections.
6,607,000
Number of total viewers of Fox News Channel in the 10 pm hour Tuesday night, exceeding both CNN’s 1,936,000 and MSNBC’s 1,594,000 average total viewers combined by more than 3 million. FNC also beat out CBS, NBC and ABC in total viewers during that hour, with the highest of the three – CBS – garnering 5,408,000 average total viewers, reports FishBowl DC.
Historically, midterm results, which are typically unfavorable to the president’s party, tell us relatively little about the coming presidential election… The record shows that the president’s party can rebound from major losses to win at the polls in two years. Bill Clinton, for instance, bounced back from the 1994 Republican landslide to easily win re-election in 1996. Similarly, President Obama, whose party suffered major losses in 2010, went on to defeat Mitt Romney in 2012, and George Bush won the 1988 election after Republicans suffered major losses in 1986, President Reagan’s sixth year in office.
— Brendan Nyhan writes in the New York Times.
