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1.8 million
“The American Civil Liberties Union is launching a new electoral program to mobilize its 1.8 million members to vote as a bloc — a sign of how the group, flush with cash from the election of Donald Trump, is increasingly turning itself into a political engine of the resistance,” BuzzFeed News reports. “If the new ACLU reminds you of the National Rifle Association, that’s not an accident.”
56
The latest Cook Political Report ratings find 62 highly at-risk House seats — 56 currently held by Republicans and just 6 held by Democrats. A new Washington Post-Schar School poll finds Democrats leading the generic congressional ballot in these battleground districts by 12 percentage points.
“Do not wait for the perfect message, don’t wait to feel a tingle in your spine because you’re expecting politicians to be so inspiring and poetic and moving that somehow, ‘OK, I’ll get off my couch after all and go spend the 15-20 minutes it takes for me to vote.’ Because that’s part of what happened in the last election. I heard that too much.”
— Barack Obama, quoted by Politico, in his first public comments in months.
68
“After the latest round of changes, Inside Elections now has 68 Republican seats rated as vulnerable compared to just 10 vulnerable Democratic seats. And there are at least a couple dozen more GOP-held seats that could develop into competitive races in the months ahead. … That discrepancy in the playing field is reminiscent of previous ‘wave’ elections. In April 2010, there were 68 vulnerable Democratic House seats and 11 vulnerable Republican seats. Republicans gained 63 seats later that year.”
“It’s hard to believe then that when Republicans lose the House in 2018, maybe by 40 or 50 seats, that House is not going to impeach him. And it’s also hard to believe that a U.S. Senate that’s going to be scared to death, though may still be in Republican hands, is not going to take a serious look when it has to deal with this president. So get good legal help now, because the storm is coming.”
— GOP strategist Alex Castellanos, quoted by The Hill.
36
Margaret Good (D) won a special election for state representative in Florida’s 72nd district on Tuesday night, beating James Buchanan (R) by 52% to 45%, WWSB-TV reports. The win gives Democrats their 36th legislative flip since President Trump took office. Trump carried the district by a 51% to 46% margin in 2016.
101
House Democrats are stepping on the gas, with plans to target 101 Republican-held congressional districts in the midterm elections, NBC News reports.“Democrats are now fielding candidates in all but 12 of the 238 districts held by Republicans… The idea is to expand the map as much as possible and hope to ride the potential wave.”
55%
A new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll finds a majority of Americans — 55% — are not confident that the federal government is doing enough to prevent foreign interference in our elections. Additionally, 57% of Americans think it’s likely that Russia will try to influence this year’s midterms.
“If we can’t figure out as a party how to win in 2018, we’re going to be in tough shape for 2020. I think it’s a huge political mistake for Democrats to even be talking about 2020 at this point.”
— Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), quoted by the Associated Press.
“In 2016 we made the mistake of rationalizing away the prospect of a Trump victory. He was too unorthodox. He couldn’t possibly sustain momentum through the grueling primary campaign. We should not make same mistake in 2018. Sure, a lot can change between now and next November. And, Democrats have a narrow path to 24 seats – even with a big wave or tailwind. But, do not ignore what’s right in front of us. A wave is building. If I were a Republican running for Congress, I’d be taking that more seriously than ever.”
