Midterms - Pinch me, I’m hope I’m not dreaming!

In the United States, we are only one-month away from the midterm elections. Elections haven’t been going all that well for us on the big cycles in recent years, so we may have to relish some good news before the election with the full recognition that it may be a mirage. But this could really be different this time. When in Oklahoma recently for one of his pre-midterms rallies with Republicans, Trump said, “I feel a little foolish saying ‘Go out and vote, go out and vote,’ but they’re going to win in a landslide.” When Trump is even admitting to a cloudburst of reality, then maybe thinking control of the US Congress and victories in Senate and governor’s races in deep red America has the pendulum swinging our way. Maybe the polls are right for a change. 

This week based on the respective Sienna College / New York Times poll, the Times’ reporters wrote this startling paragraph:

"Democrats lead among likely voters in the Senate races in Texas and Alaska, two states that consistently vote Republican, the polls found. They have an edge in Ohio, which has been tilting rightward for years. Republicans have a slim edge in Iowa, and Democrats are neck-and-neck with Republicans in Kansas, which has not voted for a Democratic senator since 1932."

Let that just settle in you mind for a minute, while we look down the ballot at gubernatorial elections where some deep red states are looking kind of purple:

"One month until Election Day, voter dissatisfaction with the economy, concerns about political extremism and frustration with President Trump have Democrats within reach of flipping four Republican-held governorships, opening a wide lead in Iowa and an expanding advantage in Ohio among likely voters, according to new polls by The New York Times and Siena University.  In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican fixture in the state for decades, is now narrowly behind his Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa. The Democratic candidate also has an advantage in the race for governor of Alaska. The only place surveyed where the Republican is ahead in the campaign for the governor’s office in Kansas, now held by a retiring Democrat."

I should quickly add that a lot can happen with a month to go. It’s also worth nothing that given that an old shaggy dog is more popular that Trump right now and he’s polling around or under 40 percent in these states, the elephant people are still thumping along in the thick of it. Furthermore, to state the obvious, the Democrats, big and small, have figured out how to stumble-bum their way into defeats before, when anything other than victory seemed impossible to consider.

But, friends, our neighboring state of Texas with a Democratic Senator and a Governor? It’s almost too good to imagine. I can remember by old friend and comrade, Kirk Adams, running Ann Richard’s campaign for a second term as governor, saying to me in the Beaumont, Texas fairgrounds that if Ann didn’t win this time, it would be a generation before a Democrat would win. What was that year? That was 1994. Now, it’s 30 years later. Kirk may have nailed it again. Thirty years is a full generation.

Pinch me, I’m hope I’m not dreaming!