freshmen

There are 22 congressional districts that Trump won in 2016 that turned around and elected a non-incumbent Democrat two years later. None of the 7 California freshmen are included:

South Carolina Blue Dog freshman Joe Cunningham chose to vote with the Republicans for his entire first term. Will any amount of money save him in an R+10 district?Last year, the pundits and Beltway prognosticators who take Nate Silver seriously did the same thing they're doing this year.

Tuesday at midnight was the FEC deadline for campaigns to get their quarterly fundraising reports in. A few candidates got extensions for one reason or another. But I wanted to share a few bits and pieces with you. Before I get to the congressional races-- which is what I want to talk about-- I have one presidential factoid to make clear.

There are only 5 freshmen with perfect voting records-- here are 3 of themIn March we decided to take a first look at how the new House members were getting started in the voting department. At the time, 24 freshmen still had 100% perfect scores-- and only 23 had "F" ratings.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi by Nancy OhanianPelosi is bending over backwards for the freshmen-- who Cedric Richmond, Louisiana New Dem and co-chair of Biden's campaign-- says to ignore because they're "scared of their own shadows." A small handful of them are the reason Congress isn't doing it's duty for the American people.

Spanberger won her seat without Republican votes but now she caters almost exclusively to GOP votersVirginia elected two freshmen from red districts, Elaine Luria, who replaced Scott Taylor in VA-02 (primarily Virginia Beach, York County and part of Norfolk plus Hampton) and Abigail Spanberger, who replaced Dave Brat in VA-07, a much redder district that includes 10 counties, the largest of them being Chesterfield, Henrico, Spotsylvania and Culp

"Look," no one serious ever said, "we can't put the Mob out of business because it will throw so many people out of work." It's true. If the Mob were shut down, all kinds of people doing work that, in varying degree, is anti-social. Insurance companies are also doing work that is anti-societal. Yet it is widely thought that if they are phased out as an anachronism for another, more effective means of paying for healthcare, too many people will be unemployed.

"Look," no one serious ever said, "we can't put the Mob out of business because it will throw so many people out of work." It's true. If the Mob were shut down, all kinds of people doing work that, in varying degree, is anti-social. Insurance companies are also doing work that is anti-societal. Yet it is widely thought that if they are phased out as an anachronism for another, more effective means of paying for healthcare, too many people will be unemployed.

Jeff Van Drew, Mikie Sherrill, Anthony Brindisi-- which will be the House's next Kyrsten Sinema?Last week, before announcing the $15 minimum wage bill, Pelosi had a meeting with her leadership team. The team now includes two elected representatives of the freshman class, one progressive, Joe Neguse (CO) and one New Dem, Katie Hill (CO).

The first 6 freshmen to sign onto the #GreenNewDeal, which is seeking to establish a new House committee to deal with Climate Change, are Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Deb Haaland (D-NM), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). Hey, California! What's up with that?