In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Señor Trumpanzee was up tweeting his love for neo-Nazi racist Corey Stewart, a crackpot he had fired as Virginia state campaign chair in 2016, who had just won the Republican nomination to face Tim Kaine in November. Stewart won with less than 50% in the 3-man race.
A couple of days ago, Michael Keegan, president of People for the American Way, invited me to meet a candidate for the open John Conyers seat in Michigan, Rashida Tlaib. The West Detroit district that goes all the way through Dearborn Heights, Inkster and Romulus to the airport, is one of the bluest in America-- with a PVI of D+33. Obama won it with 85% both times he ran and even Hillary managed to get 79% of the vote.
Tomorrow there are primaries in 5 states, Nevada, Maine, Virginia, North Dakota and South Carolina. We're watching Maine more closely than any of the other states. Blue America has only endorsed one federal candidate in any of the 5 states-- Jared Golden, who's running for Wall Street oriented Bruce Poliquin's seat in the sprawling non-Portland bulk of the state.
If Dayna Steele, who won her primary, 72% to 28%, and will now move on to face far right incumbent, Brian Babin, was just another garden variety Democrat there would be little reason to talk about their November contest. But she isn't. Dayna is an icon in the district, once the music director for KLOL, Houston's top rock station. Everyone knows her as the person who introduced them to their favorite artists.
Alexandria Ocasio's race to replace Joe Crowley in her Queens/Bronx district-- Crowley and his family live in Virginia-- could turn out to be the most important primary of 2018. I hope you're following it at Queens Against Crowley.
As you see from the responses from the pessimistic commenters on my Friday night tweet, not everyone feels Señor Trumpanzee's decision to enable insurance companies to start denying insurance to people with "pre-existing conditions." Ending that practice was always one of the most popular pieces of Obamacare, even among people who didn't support Obamacare.
Did you know that not every congressional race in California has been called yet. First place in each of the 53 districts has been determined and announced. But who the top candidate will be facing in November hasn't been called in 11 districts, some inconsequential and some extremely consequential. These are the districts where the runner-up is still too close to call. So these candidates don't know who they're running against.
