I did something dangerous Tuesday night. I watched the State of the Union and the Democratic response on my own, without Twitter as a crutch. I even watched the C-SPAN feed on my phone in order to avoid commentary from the networks and cable channels.
My goal was to avoid…
A couple decades ago, The Rothenberg Political Report would wait months before placing individual Senate races into specific ratings categories, admitting that the election cycle was far from taking shape. But that would be almost unthinkable today. For example, most media outlets that handicap races released 2020 Senate ratings before…
California’s 50th District. Alex Balkin became the second Democrat to announce a challenge to indicted GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter. 2018 nominee Ammar Campa-Najjar was the first. Balkin formerly worked at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Defense. The district is considerably favorable to Republicans, considering Hunter was under…
If Sen. Susan Collins runs for a fifth term, she ought to expect a very different race than in the past. Forget coasting to victory, no matter the opponent or even the nature of the election cycle.
Collins will start off as vulnerable — a top Democratic target in a…
California’s 50th District. Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar came within 4 points of defeating GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter in 2016 and announced he will seek a rematch in 2020. But there’s a chance neither man makes it to the next general election.
Hunter is under indictment and facing trial in September, and there’s…
Alabama’s junior senator, Democrat Doug Jones, has been in office for only 13 months, but he’s already preparing to face voters again in 2020. With the Senate at 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats, Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer can’t afford to lose any seats next year if he hopes to…
Three weeks into the government shutdown, I’m not sure how this standoff ends, but I do know there are multiple reasons for how we got here.
What’s the problem? Democrats and Republicans can’t find a solution because they’re trying to solve two different problems. If you listen carefully, Democrats are…
President Donald Trump declared victory on Election Night 2018 when Republicans picked up a couple Senate seats, keeping their majority. But Democrats held their losses to a minimum in the face of a challenging map, which keeps them within reach of the majority in 2020.
The number of seats Democrats…
Alabama. Doug Jones (D), elected 2017 special (50%). Jones defeated former state supreme court justice Roy Moore in a high-profile special election. It was the first Senate win for Alabama Democrats since 1992, when now-GOP Sen. Richard Shelby was re-elected as a Democrat. (He switched parties in 1994.) Even with…
Kentucky. Mitch McConnell (R), elected 1984 (50%), 1990 (52%), 1996 (55%), 2002 (65%), 2008 (53%) and 2014 (56%). As majority leader of the Senate and a critical piece of President Trump’s effort to reshape the courts through judicial confirmations, McConnell is and will be a Democratic target. But defeating him…
