2026 Midterm Discussions (Polls, updates, and more)

[ALonelyNight 682]

@PartySick it's so bizarre, the local news outlets in Arkansas don't even have any quotes or analysis on how insane that poll result is, they're all just treating it as if it's any other race. There's hardly any coverage of it at all

[ALonelyNight 682]

Welp, unfortunately for Hallie Shoffner...

"Dr. Jay Barth, emeritus professor of politics at Hendrix College, is active in Democratic Party politics and also helped craft and analyze the latest poll. He offered this analysis of the poll results:"

The pollster is high quality according to the NYTimes, but let's be just a tad realistic here lmao.

https://talkbusiness.net/2026/08/poll-tight-race-for-us-senate-between-cotton-shoffner/

[Economy 53,003]

18 minutes ago, PartySick said:

Canada technically borders Denmark though if we snatch up Greenland we'll be your only neighbor  

Pray we make the right choices, I have a feeling most/all of these races will be decided by ~2% margins

Still have to cross some water and the population in Atlantic Canada is low anyway

 

Also Greenland is so tiny that even a medium sized suburb in Toronto far sirpasses its GDP

 

Canadas population cores are thousands of miles from the nearest non American metros. Even Russia... its Canadas empty tundra vs Russian tundra. Even if we had good relations our populations are far apart (and we basically sell the same stuff too anyway)

 

 

Hate to say it but trade diversification from the US will have to keep fighting a strong geographical bias to just sell there so there may be limits to the percentage we buy and sell elsewhere

Edited 2 hours ago by Economy

[Ladle Ghoulash 55,003]

4 hours ago, PartySick said:

I don't think Kamala's actually gonna run.

Assigning a level of self-awareness to the good sis that I don’t think she has lol. She’s definitely running, imo.

[Ladle Ghoulash 55,003]

2 hours ago, PartySick said:

I like her

Ns, but what’s to like? She’s fully an empty suit. She seems like she’d be a kii at a dinner party, but whew is she an awful pol

[PartySick 173,735]

32 minutes ago, ALonelyNight said:

I literally have no earthly clue where that poll came from haha. Arkansas elected a Democratic governor in 2010, Mike Beebe, who won by an enormous margin. Since then Republicans have dominated everything. 

Yeah, and people are generally more willing to cross party lines for governors specifically so it's not terribly unusual for red states to have Democratic governors or blue states to have Republican governors.

Still! Pretty interesting that Arkansas is even part of the conversation at all  

[PartySick 173,735]

Just now, Ladle Ghoulash said:

Ns, but what’s to like? She’s fully an empty suit. She seems like she’d be a kii at a dinner party, but whew is she an awful pol

Ya know, I'm not so particular about presidential candidates. I kinda default to my "pragmatism is king" thing and I find her to at least give off an aura of componence and levelheadedness.

People running for that job already have such inflated egos by default, I don't think a genuinely good person wants to be president  

Either way, I'm very "blue no matter who" pilled and as it stands my vote is literally pointless in a primary (and general, let's be real) so unless we somehow ditch the electoral college before November of 2028 who really cares what I think  

[Ladle Ghoulash 55,003]

5 minutes ago, PartySick said:

I find her to at least give off an aura of componence and levelheadedness.

I honestly most people would disagree lol. She’s also shockingly unambitious for someone who seems to want to be president. Basically hid from the press for the first 2 years of Biden’s presidency, does nothing to position herself as a likely successor, and then only adopts a presidential tone when it appears the nomination is going to be handed to her. Also the fact that she disappeared post ‘24 and has only reemerged to posture for a presidential bid is just so 🫩

I get where you’re coming from overall re: the Dems, I just really strongly dislike her lmao. I’m sure she would’ve been a decent Pres (anything’s better than what we have now), but we need *leadership* moving forward and she’s in no way a leader, imo.

Edited 2 hours ago by Ladle Ghoulash

[PartySick 173,735]

@Ladle Ghoulash shame me for it, I'm not embarrassed to say Kamala being a strong black woman is probably 50% of it  

I ADORE black women, wish they were in charge of every level of government.

Speaking of, my "Angie Nixon for senate" buttons just came in the mail today and I know she's very unlikely to win (I think her odds are literally 10% on the markets) but I'm ready to fight hard for my strong socialist black queen

Yes, identity politics works on me (when I already largely agree with a candidate's platform at least)

I'm sick of voting for white men

[PartySick 173,735]

11 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

I get where you’re coming from overall re: the Dems, I just really strongly dislike her lmao. I’m sure she would’ve been a decent Pres (anything’s better than what we have now), but we need *leadership* moving forward and she’s in no way a leader, imo.

For sure, I just think the leadership we need is gonna come from congress and any Democratic president will be a rubber stamp on a progressive congress 

[Ladle Ghoulash 55,003]

11 minutes ago, PartySick said:

Angie Nixon for senate

Nixon is genuinely great. Would love for her to score a long shot victory, but her winning the primary at least means the base in FL is headed in the right (read: left/progressive) direction. 

[PartySick 173,735]

19 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

Nixon is genuinely great. Would love for her to score a long shot victory, but her winning the primary at least means the base in FL is headed in the right (read: left/progressive) direction. 

It kinda just seems that the whole Democratic voter base is largely moving left anyway.

I also listened to this video this morning  

The tl;dr is that when "insurgent" leftists win their primaries they do so on campaigns around the issues people care about and when establishment/moderate candidates do win, they do so by abusing late rush endorsements (such as the ones that beat Hong in Wisconsin) or massive corporate/AIPAC funding (like the races where Bush lost but El-Sayed squeaked out a 1pt victory despite the spending).

So, when the only cards on the table are substance and policy cards, progressives win handily.

Times are changing

[Bronco 26,874]

3 hours ago, PartySick said:

I've never looked into him other than him being the "god pick" for Ohio and basically the only Democrat that could win there.

Though, it's the same issue with Ossoff. Whether or not they'll want to go immediately from a senate campaign to a presidential campaign.

Personally, if I voted for a senator and they immediately turned around and chased office I'd be pissed, especially if Bottoms (GA) and Acton (OH) don't win their governor races. Then we're literally sacrificing a critical senate seat that tips the scales in a razor thin majority.

Brown's a little different to Ossoff. 

The Ohio Senate race is a special election fill JD Vance's term to 2028. So Brown would be at the end of his term in 2028 if he ran for President or joined a ticket as VP candidate. 

Honestly, I'll forever believe that Clinton would have won 2016 if she went with Brown over Tim Kaine (he was vetted and allegedly made it to the final 2 choice for Clinton in her Veep shortlisting). Brown was mid term though and Ohio had a republican governer which went against him in the decision. 

Sherrod Brown is a Bernie-esque Democrat with 1% of the baggage. 

[PartySick 173,735]

1 minute ago, Bronco said:

Brown's a little different to Ossoff. 

The Ohio Senate race is a special election fill JD Vance's term to 2028. So Brown would be at the end of his term in 2028 if he ran for President or joined a ticket as VP candidate. 

Honestly, I'll forever believe that Clinton would have won 2016 if she went with Brown over Tim Kaine (he was vetted and allegedly made it to the final 2 choice for Clinton in her Veep shortlisting). Brown was mid term though and Ohio had a republican governer which went against him in the decision. 

Sherrod Brown is a Bernie-esque Democrat with 1% of the baggage. 

That's true, I forgot they were going for the remainder of Vance's term. 

Well, if you support him he can't be bad  

[Bronco 26,874]

58 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

I honestly most people would disagree lol. She’s also shockingly unambitious for someone who seems to want to be president. Basically hid from the press for the first 2 years of Biden’s presidency, does nothing to position herself as a likely successor, and then only adopts a presidential tone when it appears the nomination is going to be handed to her. Also the fact that she disappeared post ‘24 and has only reemerged to posture for a presidential bid is just so 🫩

The only bit I'll disagree on here is the bit about hiding from the press during the start of the Biden presidency. 

I remember so many insider washington scoops going through the press circuits in that time about Harris & Biden not working together well and alleging Biden's team in the West Wing was deliberately starving the VP office of oxygen. 
Its why I wasn't surprised Biden ran again in 2024 despite his 2020 pitch being "lets beat Trump and use my 1 term to establish the future of the Democrats" - because he spent his term supposedly blocking the prime positioned candidate for 2024.