Now that the Senate has voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh as the next Supreme Court Justice, the mainstream news media is turning its attention to the fast-approaching mid-term elections. However, the results they are seeing are not the ones that have been predicted in the last few weeks.
The Kavanaugh debacle, along with a strong economy, is working in the GOP’s favor as its candidates are increasing their odds of winning key upcoming elections. While some independents remain undecided, the GOP’s base is enthused to see the party actually getting things done and conservative voter enthusiasm is at an all-time high, almost ensuring that GOP voters will turn out to vote in favor of the party’s candidates.
The swing towards the GOP is being felt clearly in a number of key Senate races.
In Montana, Democratic Senator Jon Tester’s race against Republican candidate Matt Rosendale is now a toss-up rather than a race favoring the incumbent as voters consider the fact that Sen. Tester not only voted against Kavanaugh but also against Neil Gorsuch back in 2017.
A Fox poll is showing that Kevin Cramer in North Dakota is ahead of Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp by 12 points, making it very likely that the incumbent senator will lose her seat. New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s lead in his Senate race is shrinking even though the state is considered to be a blue state.
Nebraska’s GOP senator Deb Fischer is more likely to keep her seat than she was just a month ago as her lead over her opponent has grown in the last few weeks.
In Missouri, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill dropped by an astounding 10 points in the polls after the Democrats began their attacks against Kavanaugh; the fact that she voted against the judge is also likely to work against her in the upcoming election.
While the Senate is already controlled by the GOP’s razor-thin majority, internal divisions have made it hard to pass key legislation. A larger GOP majority would naturally give Republicans who want to work with the President more power, potentially streamlining the legislative process.
Recent events aren’t just having an impact on Senate races. While the Democrats still have a good chance of regaining control of the House of Representatives, the odds of them doing so are shrinking fast. In Oregon, GOP congressional candidate Art Robinson recently noted that enthusiasm for Trump is growing tremendously even though Hillary Clinton won the state by eleven points back in 2016. As Robinson points out, many in the community are pleased to see that the President is getting things done even though they don’t always agree with his statements and actions.
Of course, the fact that the unemployment level is lower than it has been for nearly fifty years is sure to resonate with voters across the country as is evidenced by a recent Rasmussen Report putting Trump at a 51% approval rating.
Naturally, it is impossible to predict with 100% accuracy just who will win any particular upcoming race. As most voters clearly remember, nearly all the polls in the 2016 presidential election clearly indicated that Hillary Clinton would win with a large margin. However, recent reports and polls from a number of outlets are making it apparent that the GOP is in far better shape than many give the party credit for.
~ Liberty Planet