While it was almost a sure thing (in politics nothing is sure) that Alexandria Ortega-Cortez would win her election to the House of Representatives, I'm pleased that she did. Her acceptance speech articulated what I hope will be our future. Today our country (both federal and state) is governed mostly by old white guys. Ortega-Cortez is not that. She represents a step toward a different political scene. When she takes office, she will be at the bottom of the House hierarchy so it will take time for her to master that house. She is young, she is energetic, she has that elusive quality charisma. I hope she will have a long and successful career.

I am encouraged by the increasing number of women running for office and winning. Perhaps they can change the tone of political debates from insult fests to serious respectful debates of issues resulting in compromise... as, I think, the founding fathers intended.

Alas... we still have Ted Cruz. There is much to be done.

Disappointed by the Senate (and the Court), relieved about the House. Much work yet to be done. Still, we can allow ourselves perhaps just a moment of giddiness: Staten Island and Bay Ridge (Bay Ridge!) go blue.

I wish Ted Cruz had been unseated but it was close. I wish the Senate mix had changed more but I'm thrilled the House turned blue. Time will tell if this is enough to put some checks on Mr. Trump. But I'm hopeful.

Ronni, I think you'll get your wish about Robert Mueller. He's close to wrapping it up, I think, and the House is ready to put something in place to protect him.

As a Florida resident, so sad about the Governor and Senator--we're even more Red. On the positive side there are now 1.4 million people who will be able to vote--ex-felons who've served their time. Happy about the overall takeover of the House. Trying to not feel that our local efforts were not futile.

Happy about the House, for sure. Our basic issue of wealth at the top, poor education, and leaving the "unmentionables" out of the political/social equation still paint a grim future if not seriously addressed. Still, yes, a moment's giddiness is deserved.
Don't be too pissed, Ronni, you're on to something much bigger than all this toiling and moiling.

I live in Missouri, a very red state. Everyone I voted for lost, and we couldn't even pass a small, much-needed and long overdue ncrease in the gas tax. But your remark about campaigning struck me. Here's what I messaged to a friend a week ago: "I'll be so glad when election is over. Of course, it's never "over," and as a parody on Faulkner, it's not even past! Everyone is so busy campaigning, there's no time for governing." Guess I'm not the only one who's noticed this!

I was so anxious about the election that I went to the movies to avoid watching any of the coverage until it was late enough that most races would be decided. Arriving home at 9 p.m. Pacific time, I was overjoyed to learn that the Democrats had taken the House, but disappointed at some of the governor's races. I'm worried about redistricting in 2020 that could result in gerrymanders favoring DT. Still, in my own state of Washington, a Democratic woman defeated a Republican man in a much-watched congressional race. The district hadn't voted Democratic in decades.

As I saw clips of the president at his campaign rallies in the last few weeks, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. It was an appalling performance, even for him. All that fear mongering--and all these people apparently swallowing it whole. Do they really sit around worrying about an immigrant "invasion"? We keep hearing that we have to learn to understand why DT's supporters are his supporters, but I find it really hard to put myself in their shoes. It seems to me that they are determined to support him no matter what he does. I don't think I've ever felt that way about anyone.

But on a more pleasant topic, the movie I saw was nonfiction, called Tea with the Dames. It was simply a filmed conversation with the actresses Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright. What a delight! These four old women just talked and laughed...and laughed and laughed. Maggie Smith is as funny when she is being herself as when she is playing a role. It's not the sort of movie that will play everywhere, but it should get to NetFlix eventually. I recommend it highly.

My biggest concern was retaking the House, and thank the stars the Dems did. I voted straight Dem and now Colorado is more blue than purple. I got the Dem governor I wanted and we passed several measures that will prevent gerrymandering in the state (an independent bipartisan commission will be appointed). Sadly, our antifracking measure did not pass, but maybe our new governor will not be as pro oil & gas as the last one. Sorry Cruz won. Happy about all the women running and winning.

My candidate for Congress defeated the incumbent Republican by running a positive campaign and being inclusive and accessible. My candidate for governor (also a Democrat) ran on the campaign slogan of One Minnesota, and has a reputation as someone who can work across the aisle. My candidate for representative to my legislature is a professional mediator. Maybe we're finally getting the message across that we want people who can actually govern rather than spend all their time being confrontational and not being willing to "compromise".

To Ellen F..... you could have taken the thoughts right out of my head. Please post any organizations you are familiar with that propose like purposes. Thanks.
Is that an ok request, Ronni?

Relieved and pleased about the House. And maybe I'm a blind optimist, but I believe that deep investigations (including Muller) may just eliminate Trump from running in 2020. At the very least, we -- the public -- should know once and for all if there have been criminal actions in his past/present. There's always been a "whiff" of something not quite right about his enterprises, and whereas if he'd stayed a private citizen, he'd have skated by. But now? Not so much.

I think Mueller will be making his move soon enough that you will learn the outcome of that investigation. I wouldn't be surprised if some indictments are handed down starting this Friday. At least he and his team have kept their investigation "close to the vest" during all the political shenanigans.

Always look forward to your posts. Still in the boat with you during your enlightening journey.

I'm O.K. with what happened in WA State overall although Eastern WA elected Repubs, as they usually do. Nationally, I wish Beto O'Rourke had won (I detest Ted Cruz, but that's Texas) and I'm still hoping that Stacey Abrams pulls it out in Georgia. I don't think we've heard the last of either of them regardless of the outcome. I'd have liked to see Andrew Gillum win in Florida, too. The "charges" against him are so petty compared to what the unclothed Emperor of Trumpistan has done before breakfast every day for years!

Yes, baby steps. . .

The talking heads on TV are either gnashing their teeth or chuckling that Dems failed: Ha!! There was no Blue Wave. But there was. Look at those close elections in Texas, Georgia and Arkansas! Who’d ever think that was possible? But it is a tough to impossible row to hoe when most US House districts are GOP gerrymandered, and when red rural Senate states take up much of the US Senate seats. Heard that Dems outvoted Reps nationally by 8 million votes! Incredible…but the results don’t show it because the GOP fix was in! But happy to report that in Michigan there WAS a Blue and Pink Wave which swept three progressive ladies into the top gov’t positions (Gov, AG, Sec of St), we legalized marijuana, two gerrymandered red US Congress seats were flipped to blue by lady politicians, we will have an independent redistricting committee to draw the lines in 2020, and now we have in place constitutional law to promote easy voting for all, help end voter suppression and move toward 100% citizen participation in their Democracy! Full speed ahead. The grassroots are engaged! Oh and Walker lost in Wisconsin!

It was a very strange mix here in Iowa. The good news: two new Democratic women were sent to the House, one of whom is only 30. Sort of good news: Steve King, who is the stupidest Congressman of all and my district Rep. came very close to getting beat for the fist time in his career by a young male newcomer, J D Scholten.

Bad news: The female Republican Governor appointed when Gov. Branstad was sent to China as Ambassador, was very closely elected over a male Democrat businessman. The state legislature stayed Republican but added several women. Other state offices were a mixed bag. Bottom line: there is a lot of head scratching over the apparent ticket spiting by a lot of voters.

The two Congresswomen won due to the urban vote in their districts. We have a serious Urban/Rural problem in Iowa, but the fact that someone almost beat King in a mostly rural district says there's hope for 2020. Maybe by then the soybean farmers of Iowa will be tired of dealing with Trunp's tariffs.

Ronni, you are so right ... "There is no governing in the U.S. anymore - just campaigning."
And elections are always a mixed bag of results. Always have been and always will be, God willing and creek don't rise, as we say back in West Virginia!

Americans are a very diverse group of people ... no homogeny here! What else would one expect to see in an election in this country! I tend to prefer this to a country where everyone can agree so you just let things slide. I'm glad we squabble and argue and fight. Life would be very dull any other way for Americans! It just shows that our great Democracy allows for diversity and differences of opinions. I think that's what democracy means -- the voice of the 'demos' ... the people speak!

A 20 year tradition of meeting with like-minded friends on Election morning continued. Normally after I'd go phone bank. Unlike you, Ronni, I'm not sure if I'll be around for another election (living with NHL in one's 70s makes for uncertainty) but I was tired. So a former co worker came back to my office to help me file. We needed mindless "stuff" to stay off social media and avoid projections.

Then a late lunch. Avoidance working.

Projections began around dinner and then e-messages. A dear friend, a close friend of Beto's, I knew would post. My heart racing I went to bed with the same instructions as 2016: wake me when they call it for...

No wake up. Watched Beto live from his kitchen today on FB. I was ok-ish til Cynthia, his aide, cried. Then I sobbed. It was a painful loss.

GA still undecided bc of corruption. Sessions out. Rosenstein next?

All the posts here mirrored those on FB. Some hope, many didappointments. And for those of us sick and/or old(er) fear of what may be done or undone .. all these years of activism for rights to stay or go.

Back to bed.

I'm sitting here tonight happy about the House turning blue, saddened by local losses, happy that the weasel Scott Walker in Wisconsin was ousted, saddened that we couldn't do better in the Senate... so, mixed feelings I guess.

I'm resistant to some changes, sort of an old fogey in many ways. The one that's on my mind is the shift to the Vote By Mail process., particularly as it works (or doesn't work) with the accelerated news cycle we live with. In the good old days, an absurdly short time ago, people voted in person on election day. Some few folks with a scheduling problem would get "absentee ballots" and vote by mail. Absentee Ballots were the exception and you had to qualify for them. They were generally counted separately from the machine or paper ballots that people cast in person but there were few enough of them that they could be processed within a day or two of election day.

All that has changed. Here in San Diego County we've counted all the in-person ballots and many of the vote-by-mail ballots, but we still have 480,000 ballots left to process. Signatures must be checked on each one. We have the capability of counting about 30,000 of these a day so our results won't be final for two weeks.

I voted yesterday in person. My vote has been tallied. But I'm following a couple of local elections here in North San Diego County and we won't know who the winners are until the Registrar of Voters completes that tedious process of validating and counting the vote-by-mail ballots. Meanwhile, we have candidates who were leading yesterday after 40% of the votes had been counted who have claimed victory. We need a better way of collecting and counting votes and announcing and validating results.

In Pennsylvania, we successfully got a new congressional map after having lived under profound gerrymandering. In this election, we went from 6 Dems and 10 Reps (with two vacant seats) to 9 Dems and 9 Reps. Amazing.

I'm in Florida and I'm waiting, holding my breath, to see if we can at the very least keep our one democratic senator. We had good candidates but the republicans continue to out vote us.

I'm delighted we at least got control of the house but discouraged that we Judge RBG has fallen and is hurt and now I'm frightened that Trump will get another bite at that long lasting apple.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that there are so many MANY people in this country who think this man Trump is the answer. It doesn't seem to matter to them that he is like a bully on the playground. They vote and follow a president who takes pride in the fact he doesn't read and only goes on "instinct".

They. want. a. President. who. doesn't. read.

These midterms shouldn't have even been a contest after the last two years. So, I'm getting myself accustomed to the fact that country, as I've known and loved it, could actually end. Living thru the Viet Nam era was wrenching but this is worse.

After all we just snatched babies and children from their parent's arms and put them in "camps." Without an overwhelming vote against the president who sanctioned it.

Where do I put that in my head?