It’s Selection Day, and I’m not taking anything for granted. Here’s the Weekly Sift’s 2026 election-watching guide. And The Republican Party & The Far Right: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
There’s a danger of counting on a blue tsunami. “Republicans are winning over late-deciding voters by 9 percentage points in seven battleground Senate races, according to a new poll suggesting the GOP is gaining momentum ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“The New York Times/Siena University survey, released Sunday, found that voters who made their choices within the past month favored Republican candidates, even as Democrats maintained leads in six of the seven contests.
“‘There are still some undecided voters, and voters who decided only in the last month favored Republicans by a nine-point margin,” the Times reported.”
More broadly, Are Polls Overstating Democrats’ Midterm Leads?
MI
Haley Stevens, Abdul El-Sayed’s opponent in the Michigan Senate primary, endorsed Mike Rogers, Dr. El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in a race critical to control of the Senate.
In his blog The Farce, Jason Sattler offers a message for any of his fellow Jews who happen to live in Michigan: Religious bigotry, even if it takes the form of Islamophobia, will eventually hurt Jews. He asks them to reject Mike Rogers’ campaign of hate and vote for Abdul El-Sayed.
AK
My buddy Jim pointed me to Explaining the Case of the Two Dan Sullivans on Alaska’s Ballot.
OH
Vivek Ramaswamy Attack Ad Backfires As Ohioans Switch Votes to Amy Acton. Expect this to blow back on J.D. Vance, who supported the ad, if he runs for President.
FOTUS
I think it is readily apparent that 47 is a wackadoodle. Or in more specific NYT language, “he is more profane, more absolutist, longer-winded and less coherent than he was in 2016.” So, per Weekly Sift, “you watch any significant chunk of his speeches, read the increasingly bizarre rants he posts on Truth Social, or listen to his ridiculous self-aggrandizing fantasies (‘I would have won the Vietnam War in a week.‘ He would have won the Afghan War in three weeks — ignoring the fact that he had troops in Afghanistan for his entire first term and didn’t win.), it’s obvious that this man is insane.” I’d settle for him ending the Iran War, a conflagration of choice, NOW.
That said, DOJ plans 1,000 election monitors in all 50 states for Election Day. The Justice Department told a court no FBI or ICE employees will serve and monitors will not carry firearms; the NAACP calls the plan voter intimidation.
Already done
My wife and I cast our ballots on Sunday past. I voted straight Working Families line, folks who had been cross-endorsed by the Democrats, except for the comptroller, which I passed on. I voted for a few unopposed Democrats. For Albany County, was a YES on the coroner/medical examiner issue, and NO Establishing Additional Qualifications for County Legislators because I felt the procedures for investigating and disciplining County Legislators for violating these rules was a bit too fuzzy for me.
Anyway, go vote. If We Ever Needed To Vote! | Rev. Dr. William J. Barber (2012);
