Political Junkie

Last year, in honor of Thanksgiving, I compiled a list of ten things that I was thankful for.   My life has changed quite a bit since then; therefore, this year’s list looks a bit different than last year’s.   1.       My internship at the National Journalism Center : As I wrote about earlier this year, I had a very exciting opportunity to participate in the National Journalism Center ’s Spring 2018 Internship.   In addition to meeting quite a few famous people and making some new friends, I got to experience life in “the swamp” as well as experiencing a healthy degree of independent living for the first time in my life.   I still have plenty of souvenirs from my time in “the swamp,” including signed copies of Brian Kilmeade’s book Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans and David Bossie’s book that he co-wrote with Corey Lewandowski, Let Trump Be Trump .   I also walked away with roughly a dozen business cards and some posters of one of my fellow NJC alumni, Ann Coult

In the weeks following the 2016 Presidential Election, a group of Hollywood celebrities put out an ad trying to convince members of the Electoral College pledged to vote for President Trump to break their pledge and become “faithless electors.” In the past, faithless electors have had little to no effect on the outcome of the electoral vote total.  In 2004, a faithless elector pledged to vote for John Kerry opted instead to vote for John Edwards, Kerry’s running mate; likely by accident.  In 2000, an elector from Washington D.C. abstained to protest the city’s lack of a voting representative in Congress.    In 2016, in the wake of massive establishment opposition to President Trump, liberals hoped that the number of faithless electors would dramatically increase.  In reality, only two members of the Electoral College decided to take the advice of the Hollywood celebrities, one faithless elector in Texas voted for Ron Paul while another voted for John Kasich.  Believe it

Well, Republicans lost at least 37 seats in the midterm elections, meaning that they will need a net gain of at least 14 in order to retake control.   Half of the Democrats’ pickups came in districts carried by Hillary Clinton.   Republicans should probably write off those seats and focus on winning back the House by winning back many of the seats carried by President Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election they lost this year, in addition to trying to flip seats won by President Trump that Republicans have not held for decades. As of right now, it looks like Republicans have no pickup opportunities in California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Texas, and Washington; states where Republicans ended up losing at least one seat this year. Keep in mind that the Democrats will probably target the remaining five seats carried by Hillary Clinton as they seek to expand their House majority in 2020; in addition to a handful of seats that Republicans only won by a narrow margin in 2018.   With

Earlier this year, I put together a rubric highlighting the best and worst case scenarios for Republicans on Election Day.  To summarize, an “A” would mean that Republicans would pick up a large number of seats in the Senate, pick up seats in the House, and see little net change in the number of governorships; a “B” would mean that Republicans would maintain control of the House, pick up seats in the Senate, and lose a minimal amount of governorships; a “C” would mean that Republicans would lose control of the House, maintain or increase their Senate majority, and lose a handful of governorships; a “D” would mean that Republicans would lose control of the House, lose a seat in the Senate, and lose several governorships; and an “F” would mean that Republicans would lose control of both Houses of Congress, and suffer enormous losses in governorships and state legislative seats.   Republicans came out with a “C.”  They lost the House and ended up losing some seats they had no bus

Following Roy Moore’s loss in the Alabama Senate race last year, I wrote an article called “A Series of Unfortunate Events.” I hoped that I did not have to write another one like that this year. However, the fact that the Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives has left me no choice. As of right now, it looks like Democrats will have netted between 30 and 35 seats.   Fortunately, this puts Republicans in a decent position to retake the House in 2020.   After Democrats lost the House in 2010, they would have needed two dozen seats to retake control of the House in 2012.   T hat obviously did not pan out. Republicans probably could have held onto the majority if not for a series of unfortunate events.   In parentheses after each unfortunate event, I have included the number of seats Republicans would hold if not for that unfortunate event.   Let’s take a look at those events:   1.       Fifty years of low-skilled immigration: A study from the Center for