While I’m fairly confident that we will do well in the Senate elections this year—gaining seats and possibly retaking a majority—I recently looked at the 2018 Senate map, and it doesn’t look good for us. Including the seats currently held by Bernie Sanders and Angus King, we will have 25 seats to defend, while the Republicans will be defending only 8 seats, most of which reside in safely red states.
In recent history, mid-term turnout on the Democratic side has been awful. If we are unable to educate young voters on the importance of mid-term elections and GOTV two years from now, we may be looking at a Republican super-majority.
I’m sorry to be doom and gloom, but we need to start looking past this election, if only just with our peripheral vision. We have a big fight ahead of us.
States with Democratic Senators up for election in 2018:
California
Connecticut
Florida
Hawaii
Indiana
Maine
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Montana
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Dakota
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
States with Republican Senators up for election in 2018:
Arizona
Mississippi
Nebraska
Nevada
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Wyoming