2022 midterm election thread

User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: 2022 midterm election thread

Post by caltrek »

GOP Senator John Thune Will Seek Re-election
by Erin Doherty
January 8, 2022

https://www.axios.com/john-thune-reelec ... c09ae.html

Introduction:
(Axios) Senate Minority Whip John Thune announced Saturday that he plans to run for a fourth term in 2022.

Why it matters: The second-ranking Senate Republican had been considering retirement, per the New York Times, setting off upheaval among members of the GOP who view Thune as a potential successor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
  • McConnell, in an interview last month, urged Thune to run for re-election, saying: "Thune is an outstanding senator. He's done a great job as whip ... It would be a real setback from the country and our party if he retires," NBC News reports.
Driving the news: "I’ve always promised that I would do the work, even when it was hard, uncomfortable, or unpopular," Thune said in a statement out Saturday.
  • "That work continues, which is why after careful consideration and prayer, and with the support of my family, I’m asking South Dakotans for the opportunity to continue serving them in the U.S. Senate."
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12971
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: 2022 midterm election thread

Post by weatheriscool »

Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson will seek reelection
Source: AP

By SCOTT BAUER
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, one of former President Donald Trump’s biggest backers, announced Sunday that he will seek reelection in the battleground state, breaking his promise not to seek a third term.

Johnson announced his decision via email two days after a pair of Republicans with knowledge of his decision told The Associated Press that he was close to launching a bid. Johnson over the past year has been a leading voice in downplaying the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the coronavirus pandemic, in addition to remaining a vocal Trump supporter.

The race is sure to be one of the most hotly contested in the country next year in purple Wisconsin. President Joe Biden won the state by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020 after a similarly narrow win by Trump in 2016. Johnson won by nearly 5 points in 2010, his first race for office, and then by just over 3 points in 2016. Both times he defeated Democrat Russ Feingold.

Johnson’s announcement that he will run again came a day after Republican Sen. John Thune, of South Dakota, said he would seek a fourth term. No other Senate retirements are likely beyond the five Republicans and one Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who have already announced plans to step down.


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/capitol-sieg ... 9002d71353
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: 2022 midterm election thread

Post by caltrek »

Ohio Supreme Court Strikes Down Rigged Congressional Maps
by Jessica Corbett
January 14, 2022

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/ ... ional-maps

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Voting rights advocates on Friday celebrated the Ohio Supreme Court's 4-3 decision to strike down new GOP-drawn congressional districts just days after a similar ruling against rigged maps for state-level legislators.

"The Ohio Supreme Court has once again sent the indisputable message that district maps are not to be toyed with or manipulated to the detriment of voters," said Julie Ebenstein, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, in a statement. "This is another huge victory for voting rights."

Praising the court's "clear and meticulously detailed" opinion invalidating a congressional map that favored Republicans, ACLU of Ohio legal director Freda Levenson declared, "What a week for democracy!"

The opinion—authored by Justice Michael Donnelly and backed by the other two Democrats as well as Republican Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor—calls out Ohio GOP lawmakers for failing to comply with the state constitution, stating that their plan "is infused with undue partisan bias" and "when the dealer stacks the deck in advance, the house usually wins."

"That perhaps explains how a party that generally musters no more than 55% of the statewide popular vote is positioned to reliably win anywhere from 75% to 80% of the seats in the Ohio congressional delegation," the opinion continues. "By any rational measure, that skewed result just does not add up."
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: 2022 midterm election thread

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: 2022 midterm election thread

Post by caltrek »

^^^U.S. voters have such a double standard when it comes to evaluating the two parties. Unbelievable that they now prefer the Republicans after all we went through with Trump as president.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12971
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: 2022 midterm election thread

Post by weatheriscool »

Speaker Pelosi announces she is running for reelection
Source: Washington Post

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Tuesday that she is running for reelection, citing the “crucial” need to defend American democracy through legislation on voting rights and other issues.

Pelosi, 81, has served in Congress since 1987.

“While we have made progress, much more needs to be done to improve people’s lives,” Pelosi said in a video posted to her Twitter feed. “Our democracy is at risk because of assaults on the truth, the assault on the U.S. Capitol, and the state-by-state assault on voting rights. This election is crucial. Nothing less is at stake than our democracy.”

She added: “But as we say, we don’t agonize, we organize. And that is why I am running for reelection to Congress and respectfully seek your support. I would be greatly honored by it and grateful for it.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... eelection/
weatheriscool
Posts: 12971
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: 2022 midterm election thread

Post by weatheriscool »

Abbott running comfortably ahead of O'Rourke in DMN-UT-Tyler poll; Paxton could face runoff
Source: Dallas Morning News

By Robert T. Garrett
5:00 AM on Jan 30, 2022

AUSTIN — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is running 11 percentage points ahead of Democrat Beto O’Rourke in this year’s race for Texas governor, according to a Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll released Sunday.

Buoyed by 2-to-1 support among whites and a growing number of voters who identify as Republican, Abbott leads O’Rourke in a hypothetical matchup, 47%-36%. He even holds a narrow lead over O’Rourke among Hispanics, 40%-39%.

Registered voters are not in a great mood about Texas’ current direction: 50% say things are on the wrong track, compared with 49% who say the state is headed in the right direction.

Still, Abbott dodges much of the blame. His job rating has held at a respectable net approval, 50%-45%. While he’s still underwater with independent voters, with only 37% of them approving of how he’s performing, he draws unfavorable views from just 38% of all voters.


Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politic ... ce-runoff/
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: 2022 midterm election thread

Post by caltrek »

Arizona Republican Senate Hopeful Slammed as 'Disgusting' for Violent Campaign Ad
by Alex Henderson
February 11, 2022

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/gop-violence/

Introduction:
(Alternet) Jim Lamon, one of the MAGA Republicans competing in Arizona’s 2022 GOP U.S. Senate primary, is drawing criticism for a new campaign ad that depicts him shooting at President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly — who he is hoping to compete with in the general election, and whose wife, Gabby Giffords, survived an attempted murder in 2011.

The ad, which Lamon posted on Twitter on February 10, is made to look like one of Italian director Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns of the 1960s. Lamon plays a Clint Eastwood-like character, and the music recalls Ennio Morricone’s work in Leone movies like “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “Once Upon a Time in the West” and “A Fistful of Dollars.” Actors portraying Biden, Pelosi and Kelly, all clad in western attire, are described in the ad as “The D.C. Gang” — and Lamon shoots the guns out of their hands.

Lamon, also wearing western attire, declares, “The good people of Arizona have had enough of you. It’s time for a showdown.”

The Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo reports, “Criticism towards the ad has been swift, with many people pointing out other recent instances of violent imagery used by members of the Republican Party. Last November, Paul Gosar, Republican representative for Arizona, was officially censured by the House after sharing an animated video depicting him killing the Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Biden.”

Shannon Watts, founder of the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, slammed the ad as “disgusting”
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: 2022 midterm election thread

Post by caltrek »

Trump's Latest GOP Primary Target: A South Carolina Congresswoman Who Worked for his 2016 Campaign
by Jeff Singer
February 13, 2022

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/nancy-mace/

Introduction:
(Alternet) Donald Trump on Wednesday night gave his “complete and total” endorsement to former state Rep. Katie Arrington’s day-old campaign to deny freshman Rep. Nancy Mace renomination in the June Republican primary for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, and he characteristically used the occasion to spew bile at the incumbent. Trump not-tweeted, “Katie Arrington is running against an absolutely terrible candidate, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, whose remarks and attitude have been devastating for her community, and not at all representative of the Republican Party to which she has been very disloyal.”

Trump previously backed Arrington’s successful 2018 primary campaign against then-Rep. Mark Sanford about three hours before polls closed, and his statement continued by trying to justify her subsequent general election loss to Democrat Joe Cunningham. The GOP leader noted that Arrington had been injured in a car wreck 10 days after the primary, saying, “Her automobile accident a number of years ago was devastating, and made it very difficult for her to campaign after having won the primary against another terrible candidate, ‘Mr. Argentina.’” It won’t surprise you to learn, though, that a whole lot more went into why Cunningham, who suspended his campaign after his opponent was hospitalized, went on to defeat Arrington in one of the biggest upsets of the cycle.

Mace, as The State’s Caitlin Byrd notes, spent most of the last several years as a Trump loyalist, and she even began working for his campaign in September of 2015 back when few gave him a chance. But that was before the new congresswoman, who won in 2020 by unseating Cunningham, was forced to barricade in her office during the Jan. 6 attack. “I can’t condone the rhetoric from yesterday, where people died and all the violence,” she said the next day, adding, “These were not protests. This was anarchy.” She went even further in her very first floor speech days later, saying of Trump, “I hold him accountable for the events that transpired.”
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: 2022 midterm election thread

Post by caltrek »

Mitch McConnell Reported to be 'Desperately' Working to Crush 'Unelectable Goofballs' Championed by Trump
by Tom Boggioni
February 13, 2022

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/mcconnell-2656651190/

Introduction:
(Alternet) According to a report from the New York Times, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been working with his lieutenants to squash growing Trumpism in the Senate in his battle with Donald Trump over the future of the party.

The report from the Times' Jonathan Martin notes that McConnell is "quietly, desperately" recruiting candidates for the upcoming election in the hopes that he can push aside lawmakers who have pledged their allegiance to the former president.

According to the report, "The loose alliance, which was once thought of as the G.O.P. establishment, for months has been engaged in a high-stakes candidate recruitment campaign, full of phone calls, meetings, polling memos and promises of millions of dollars. It’s all aimed at recapturing the Senate majority, but the election also represents what could be Republicans’ last chance to reverse the spread of Trumpism before it fully consumes their party."
Further Extract:
According to the report, the stakes for McConnell -- and Trump -- could not be higher. Should McConnell prevail, he has a better chance of retaking control of the Senate in the November midterms as well as exposing Trump as a paper tiger Republicans need no longer fear.

For Trump, the failure of the candidates he endorses would put a major damper on his plans to run for president again in 2024, with the Times' Martin writing, "If he loses in a series of races after an attempt to play kingmaker, however, it would deflate Mr. Trump’s standing, luring other ambitious Republicans into the White House contest and providing a path for the party to move on."
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
Post Reply