It’s a big week for sports in the nation’s capital.
The Caps won both home games in their quest for D.C.’s first-ever Stanley Cup.
The Nats won both home games against Tampa Bay (after a not-awesome series in Atlanta but whatever).
And Trump uninvited the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles to the White House by making up some lies about players not standing for the national anthem.
What a time to be alive.
Here’s some stuff that’s not for the birds. Also some stuff that is.
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Eagles Fly: Yeah, sure, there were tons of primaries on Tuesday, but there was also a special election in Missouri that delivered yet another dose of good news for downballot Democrats.
- Lauren Arthur successfully flipped this supposedly safe state Senate seat from red to blue this week (its previous occupant was appointed to a commission by his colleagues in the GOP-majority chamber—a move suggesting Republicans thought that they’d have no trouble keeping it) when she smoked her GOP opponent by 19 points—a 24-point swing from Democratic presidential performance in the district in 2016.
Don’t be surprised if other Missouri Democrats adopt this campaign tactic more broadly for the fall.
Dodo: It’s past time for voting rights-restricting and marriage equality-opposing Democrats to face extinction, but New Mexico state Rep. Debbie Rodella apparently missed the memo.
Fun fact! No Republican even bothered to run in this safely blue district (it went for Clinton 65-24 in 2016), so Herrera will coast to election this fall.
Bluebird: Democratic women generally had a strong showing in Tuesday’s statehouse primaries.
Mockingbirds: North Carolina Republicans are scheming to mimic part of a sweeping voter suppression law struck down by federal courts two years ago by enshrining a photo ID requirement in the state constitution.
- The GOP House speaker introduced the measure on Thursday, and because of their expertly gerrymandered legislative maps, Republicans have more than enough votes to place it on the ballot in November.
- In addition to making this type of voter suppression a part of North Carolina’s constitution, Republicans concerned about losing seats in the legislature may be hoping this will help drive conservative voters to the polls this fall.
- But requiring voters to produce photo ID is only one piece of the racist disenfranchisement law North Carolina Republicans passed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s dismantling of one of the pillars of the Voting Rights act in the 2013 atrocity Shelby County v. Holder.
- If this push is successful, Republicans may try use this piecemeal approach to reduce early voting, eliminate same-day registration, and end pre-registration for teenagers.
Canary in a Coalmine: The U.S. Supreme Court might have issued a narrow ruling this week in the instantly infamous Masterpiece Bakeshop case, but its scope did little to mitigate its negative impact on LGBT rights. (The case essentially validated the religious right’s claim that they have a constitutionally protected right to discriminate against LGBT citizens.)
- But one Republican lawmaker in South Dakota carried the outcome of the case to its racist extreme when he responded to the ruling by arguing—first in a Facebook post, and then to a local paper—that business owners with “strongly based belief[s]” should be allowed to discriminate against customers of color.
- According to state Rep. Michael Clark, “People shouldn’t be able to use their minority status to bully a business.”
- An hour after the story was published, Clark must have realized how breathtakingly racist he sounded, because he emailed an apology to a reporter: “I would never advocate discriminating against people based on their color or race.”
Except that’s exactly what he did.
Fun fact! Clark may, in fact, be oustable this fall.
- While Trump romped in District 9 (57-35 percent), Romney’s win here in 2012 was much smaller (53-45), and as recently as 2014, a Democrat won one of the two seats in this House district.
Fly Like An Eagle: Before I go, let’s check in on the majestic and beautiful Daily Kos Elections 2018 Legislative Open Seat Tracker, which has been updated to reflect the status of 4,264 partisan legislative seats that will be on the ballot this fall (only 1,700 or so left to go)!
Here’s where each party is currently situated in terms of retirements and open seats at the state legislative level this fall.
- 424 Republicans are retiring (vs. 207 Democrats)
- 153 Republicans are term-limited out (vs. 82 Democrats)
- 596 Republicans will skate into office unopposed, while 718 Democrats will do the same.
- In percentage terms, the difference is even more, like, whoa: 44 percent of Democratic-held seats are going uncontested by Republicans, while the reverse is true of just 23 percent of GOP-held seats.
- And in raw numbers, the differences is even starker still: So far, Democrats are fielding candidates in 1,999 GOP seats, while Republicans are doing so in just 896 Democratic seats.
- That’s over twice as many Democratic legislative candidates versus Republican candidates.
And with that sunny thought, I bid you adieu for two weeks—time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future. Try not to When Doves Cry because you miss me, okay?
(Happy would-have-been-60th birthday, Prince. Sigh.)