Hillary Clinton had a 100K lead in early voting in Harris County, and increased her lead as the night went on. The only countywide Republican who was leading early on was Mike Sullivan, but later in the evening, at the time when 80% of the Election Day vote was in, Ann Harris Bennett caught and passed him. Kim Ogg and Ed Gonzalez won easily, Vince Ryan was re-elected easily, and all Democratic judicial candidates won.
The HISD recapture referendum went down big, the Heights referendum to update the dry ordinance won, and Anne Sung will face John Luman in a runoff for HISD VII. Statewide, Clinton was trailing by about nine points, and with a ton of precincts still out was already at President Obama’s vote level from 2012. Dems appear to have picked up several State House seats, though not the SBOE seat or CD23. Clinton also carried Fort Bend County, though she had no coattails, and Commissioner Richard Morrison unfortunately lost.
I’m too stunned by what happened nationally to have anything else to say at this time. I’ll be back when I recover.
On a national level blame the DNC and super delegates. Hillary was forced on the party and had no real support other than from the party bosses. I think both Sanders or Biden would have stomped trump. Also not sure if her campaign was arrogant but losing Wisconsin (and probably Michigan) is incredible, she did not even go to Wisconsin once during the general election. I bet she wished that she had not wasted money setting up shop in Texas and used those funds in WI and MI instead
Hillary was the Dems Bob Dole candidate….it was her turn, and by God, the party elite was going to make it happen, voters be damned. Fortunately for America she is severely disliked. She has none of Bill’s charisma. Bill was the guy everybody wanted to hang out with, the life of the party guy. Hillary? Not so much.
Xems would have probably won with Biden. He’s likable and sympathetic because of his dead son.
Glad to see Sullivan lose as county Voter Registrar.
Hopefully Bennett can put forth forward thinking ways to improve voter registration because Sullivan was regressive in that area.
The country will survive, many of the people who voted for change will probably get it, but it may not be what they wanted.
The Trade Agreement is dead so said a top Republican, that is good. The non-social conservative, i.e., pro choice, the bathroom for men and women believers, the Muslims and the undocumented are probably the big losers.
I don’t care for Trump for the same reasons I never voted for Bill Clinton, zipper problems. Why get married if you can’t control it. I don’t like anyone that makes fun of people, that would be Trump. Let us see if the Republicans can govern they won’t be able to blame the Democrats. I do better economically with Republicans but don’t always voted for what is best for my pocket.
America is a big ship, looking forward to see how Trump will make some of the things that he promised happen.
Time to do away with straight ticket voting.
voters are too lazy to research local candidates
From a purely state perspective this was a very good night for Texas Democrats. It reflected the national shift. Trump turned rural Texas from overwhelmingly to North Korean level Republican. He got 90+ in a few counties, topped by a 94-3 margin in King County. But so few people live in those counties, it is overwhelmed by his big falloff from previous Republicans in the Metro areas, particularly Houston. The end result, despite it being a better Republican year than 2012, was a decline in the winning margin from 18 by Romney in 2012 to 10 for Trump in 2012. That is a substantial movement, if you think about it.
It is true that downballot Republicans outperformed Trump. Indeed, his running behind “Straight Republican” is pretty funny. However, it also been true historically that voters tend to shift their behavior at the Presidential level before shifting their downballot behavior. That was certainly true in the shift of Texas to Republicans a generation ago. The Democrats immediate task in Texas is to the tie the Republican Party as a whole to Trump and the qualities that contributed to this marked decline in his appeal in the state, and to provide reinforcement and further encouragement to voters who took the first step yesterday in knocking down the red wall.
For an upcoming song list post, I suggest the song “Hope In a Hopeless World” written by Pop Staples. Here is a link to a good version by the appropriately-named band for this election aftermath, “Widespread Panic.”
https://youtu.be/R9JXEsIH7xE
>”I’m too stunned by what happened nationally to have anything else to say at this time. I’ll be back when I recover.”
Not to be contrary (well, OK, yeah maybe meaning to be), but I’d suggest this tune, which has suddenly become very meaningful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSxSc3ylAkg