13 days until the November 8 midterm elections. What do we know?

By Dave Andrusko

It takes reading only a couple of headlines and a few opening paragraphs to learn that the party of abortion—Democrats—and their cohorts in the media, fear that in just under two weeks they may be under.

Thomas Edsall in the New York Times writes:

With the midterm election less than two weeks away, polling has turned bleak for the Democrats, not only increasing the likelihood that the party will lose control of the House, but also dimming the prospects that it will hold the Senate.

Another Times story, this one written by Shane Goldmacher. The headline is

Democrats, on Defense in Blue States, Brace for a Red Wave in the House

And the first paragraph

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Republicans are pressing their advantage deep into Democratic territory in the closing stretch of the 2022 campaign, competing for an abundance of House seats amid growing signs that voters are poised to punish President Biden’s party even in the bluest parts of America.

One more, written by veteran Washington Post reporter Dan Balz, which induce the most panic among Democrats:

The Latino vote shifted toward Republicans in 2020. Will it again?

Part of the explanation for the trepidation is that the Democrats have such tiny margins in the House [220-212] and Senate [tied at 50-50] Republicans need to net out just a handful of seats to control either or both Houses of Congress. Add to this that, historically, in the first midterm after a presidential election, the president’s party loses…often badly.

The stories that are making their way to the front page are of inroads Republicans are making into areas that they have not carried sometimes for decades. Here are three examples from Goldmacher:

In Oregon, Republicans are in contention to win half of the state’s soon-to-be six congressional seats — up from the one seat they now hold in the traditional Democratic stronghold.

In California, Republicans are competing to represent as many as five House seats that Mr. Biden carried in 2020 by the relatively comfortable margin of 10 percentage points or more.

In New York, Republicans are pursuing five more districts carried by Mr. Biden, including one held by Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as they seek a prominent symbolic victory as much as a seat.

No wonder the subhead for his story is “‘Reality is setting in’: With two weeks to go, Republicans are competing in Democratic bastions like New York, California, Oregon and even Rhode Island.”

One last thought for today. Edsall, in particular, finds people who reassure him that neither party can expect to hold power for any length of time. Political Science Professor Bruce Cain says, “It’s not like either party needs to worry about being locked out of power for very long. The electoral winds will shift, and the window to power and policy will open again soon enough. ”Is that whistling past the grave yard, or what?