Midterms

Shortly after the results of Tuesday’s Georgia run-off election were announced, with the news of the Rev. Raphael Warnock’s victory over former NFL star Herschel Walker for a seat in the U.S. Senate, I got an e-mail from someone I went to college with who for many years now has lived in Georgia and been active in Republican Party politics there — activity that has not, at least not yet, put any strain on our friendship. Well, none I’ve noticed, anyway.

“I just want you to know,” she wrote, “that we just gave away to you guys a Senate seat. We’re as bad here as Pennsylvania!”

How, she wanted to know, could her party have given the nomination to Walker? His candidacy reminded me of just how crazy these elections in the South can get; Walker seemed something dreamed up by Faulkner — yet the Republican standard bearer nevertheless came close to winning, getting nearly 49% of the vote in Tuesday’s contest.

Like Wellington’s at Waterloo, Warnock’s victory in Georgia was a near thing.

Like Wellington’s at Waterloo, Warnock’s victory in Georgia was a near thing.

Democrats are celebrating what they see as historic success?this election, adding a Senate seat and holding onto far more seats in the House of Representatives than the “experts” predicted. The party picked up three governorships, flipped some state legislatures, and defeated Trump-backed Republican election deniers in those key battleground states the pundits will be obsessing over the next couple of years.

But some back-of-the-envelope ciphering partly dampens the celebration. Republicans actually did pretty well, outpolling Democrats nationally in Congressional races.

Where they won, Republicans won big (helped by gerrymandering); where they lost, the margins were close enough to be overcome with better candidates.

Right now Democrats continue to have a chance of holding onto the White House in 2024 by winning just 23 states and the District of Columbia for 275 Electoral College votes — although, ironically, possibly losing the popular vote, or at best narrowly winning it.

And they certainly have work to do to if they are to take back the House and hold onto the Senate in '24.?