16 Lawmakers Accused of Sexual Misconduct Won Their Primaries

16

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.

Half of Young People Are Anxious About the Midterms

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.

Democrats Turning Out to Vote — Massively

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.”

Democrats Gave No Reason to Vote for Them in 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.

Malloy Explains How He Survived the Midterms

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.

Midterms Don’t Predict What 2016 Will Bring

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.