Give ‘em hell, Harry!
Democratic Senator Cathrine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Adam Laxalt tonight, as declared by the Associated Press, by a scant, but probably impervious to recount, margin of 5,000 votes to insure Democratic control of next year’s Senate.
“Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto always knew her election would come down to the wire. “Nevada is a purple state,” she told me in October when we chatted in Las Vegas in the closing weeks of the 2022 midterm campaign trail. “These are always close races. I won by 2 percent last time [and] I know Joe Biden won by 2 percent also.”
She was right. By the smallest of margins, about 5,000 votes as of Saturday evening, the country’s first and only Latina in the Senate won reelection — an impressive feat given the economic headwinds Democrats faced from high inflation and frustration with President Joe Biden that kept polls close for plenty of incumbents…
… Cortez Masto fended off a serious challenge from the former Republican state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who spent much of the late summer and early fall leading in polls. Legal challenges are possible — Laxalt hinted this summer at filing lawsuits to “try to tighten up the election,” after raising claims about voter fraud and criticizing election administration in the state. A 2020 election denier, he walked a careful line in the days after polls closed in the state despite Trump baiting him to call the state’s voting system corrupt while mail-in ballots were being received. Earlier this week, Laxalt did accept the possibility of a loss.
Let the legal challenges come, if Laxalt and the GOP wants to waste their money, Cortez Masto’s win was fueled by the hard work of the S.E.I.U. and I’m sure they meticulous in their record keeping.
It does make one wonder if Rick Scott wants to keep pursuing his bid to oust McConnell from the Minority Leader position or if he would now rather just cut bait and hope for a majority in 2024.
Either way this defeat is really gonna smart some for the GOP leadership, as they invested heavily is Nevada where Cortez Masto was thought to be in a vulnerable position.
But the Red Wave never really materialized and there is even a non-zero chance that Democrats will hang on to the House.
Let us stand back in awe of the great red wave of 2022:
Kinda puny isn’t it?
A ripple in the puddle of their own tears.
Not a wave at all.
An inch or a mile, the win remains a win. As was said on Twitter, they promised us a red wave. We gave them a Red Wedding (see Game of Thrones for details).
As has been said, “I (used to) have periods heavier than that”.