Mike’s Midterm Tsunami Truth #17 Early Voting, Mail-in Voting, Dropbox Voting — These Were Made for Libs, Hard Workers, Book Readers, Artists, Busy Parents, Slackers, and Progressives like us! In other words, The Majority! Michael Moore Oct 13 A Michigan sunrise to enjoy while early voting. (Photo by Jeff Gibbs) This is today’s reason why we will win in Roevember: in spite of successful Republican attempts to make it harder to vote — especially for students, the poor, working moms, Black and Brown people — we still have more days and ways now to vote than we did before the pandemic. In fact, if you live in Ohio, you can go vote today! In Michigan, we’ve been voting since it was 90 degrees and sweltering in September! In fact, in Michigan and a few other states, you can register to vote right up until what we still call “Election Day!” Republicans — aka, the anti-Democracy Party of Trump — hate this. Because of Covid, everyone agreed back in 2020 that we had to make it easy for people to vote safely without contracting the virus. Turns out, all kinds of people loved voting in these new ways.  Despite a deadly pandemic, we not only had the highest voter turnout of the 21st century with 67% of Americans voting, we also shattered the record of nontraditional voting with 69% of those who voted doing so early — either in-person or by mail. And PEW found the country, for once, was in agreement — the majority of both Biden voters (82%) and Trump voters (62%) cast their ballots before election day. And this year, they didn’t want to go back to the old way.  Yet for the past two years we’ve faced attempts by Republican-led state legislatures to get rid of all the new ways people like to vote. And now there are, in many red states, fewer early voting days, fewer polling places — and in some cities with large populations, there’s only one Dropbox. Ha!  Why don’t they want to make it easy for the citizens to vote? Because they know and agree with me on what I’ve been telling you since Midterm Tsunami Truth #1 — that there are more, many more, of us than them! And that means they can’t win unless they try to prevent some of the majority — us! —from voting. Take this as a compliment. They are so scared of us and the power of our multi-million majority, they have literally lost their minds. Gone bonkers. Cuckoo for Cocco Puffs crazy! I mean, in just the past decade, they’ve been forced to endure a Black President, the gays all getting married, and hysterical women now making up the majority of both our medical schools AND law schools!  “How in sweet Jesus’ name did this happen?! Marijuana everywhere! The churches are empty, young people don’t want to kill deer or ducks, you can’t bum a cigarette anymore because so few people smoke now! Vegans roaming everywhere, pronouns, so many pronouns, you don’t know who is who or what is they! Madness! Quick — close the borders! They’re trying to replace us! Mommy! Mommy! I‘M SCARED!!!” Phew. It’s exhausting. But just like those who swore they’d never get in a horseless carriage or allow dangerous electrical wires into the walls of their homes, they will sooner or later get used to gays and their wedding cakes, and their very own kids teaching them about race and anti-racism. They will, in the next decade, learn to accept the free universal health care and day care we’re going to give them. They’re going to get a guaranteed vacation by law and paid time off when they have a baby or their parents take ill. These will be bitter pills for them to swallow, but eventually they’ll see that we meant well and we did this for them even though they didn’t vote for our candidates or listen to hip-hop or believe in Beyoncé or Buddha. We’ve always loved Uncle Bob, even though he drives us crazy.  And on November 8th, their efforts to suppress the majority will fail — but not only because we will rise up, but because in their race to remain in power, they outmaneuvered themselves, and forgot to check their blind spot. This election year, they’ve spent so much time convincing their side not to trust elections or ballots or voting machines or (black) election workers that now millions of Republicans are going to sit these Midterms out — “Because it’s all rigged!“ “Hunter Biden is controlling the punch card counters brought in from Venezuela!” “Look — there’s JFK, Jr.!”  Talk about an underreported story!  So all we have to do is show up with a few of our friends from those Central American caravans and vote! If you can, bring a few neighbors, a cousin or two, a boy from school you're sweet on. And do it on an early voting day when the lines are shorter and snow hasn’t started to fall. Make it a Dropbox Date Night! Help your parents fill out their mail-in ballot! Order in the pizza, crack open a Stroh’s and toast this weird and wacky Democracy.  It’s the only one we’ve got, and the only hope you have.

 

Mike’s Midterm Tsunami Truth #27

We are going to win because our side has millions of good souls like this…

MICHAEL MOORE OCT 25

This is who we are. And we should take heart that everyone like Luke — who represents the true majority of Americans — are voting early right now. They are sending in or dropping off their mail-in ballots right now. And they are going to vote en masse on November 8th!

Hate loses. And if you don't believe that, then start fighting with all the love you have inside you for these next 2 weeks. Convince just one person you know who usually doesn’t vote to vote just this one time. “Adopt a Nonvoter!” There are over 15 million of you who are reading or have access to this Midterm Tsunami Truth right now. You subscribe (free and paid) to my Substack where there have been 5.4 million reads of these daily Truths since I began posting them 4 weeks ago. You follow me on social media. You are a regular listener to my podcast (nearly 40 million downloads to date). You are a massive force to be reckoned with. If just 10% of you convinced just one friend or family member to vote, that’s an extra 1.5 million votes! Trump won in 2016 by just 77,000 votes in the three states that put him over the top in the Electoral College. Each of you, in just this one very small way, can move a mighty mountain in these final two weeks. 

You have to believe! You have to know the real and loving America you live in. Re-read the tweet from Luke above. Stop listening to those who are working overtime to depress and lessen the Democratic vote. They are banking on your cynicism and despair. Don’t be their puppet! Resist! Trust that love usually wins out in the end. Stand up today and do something to make this happen. If you can’t stand up for this crazy, flawed, amazing country, then can you please just stand up for yourself? For your own dreams and desire to live a life that seeks Justice and Peace and a fair shake for everyone? A life not controlled by the company, the boss, the neighborhood association who just told you they don’t like the garden you’ve planted or the color you’ve painted your shutters. There are scoundrels on this ballot who plan to cut your Social Security and Medicare. Who are going to cut funds to your child’s school. Who are going to turn your public library over to a profit-making corporation in order to “save money.“ Their agenda is to make your life harder as they line the pockets of their wealthy donors. Don’t think for a minute they plan to stop with regulating uteruses and deciding who you can marry. They are overflowing with hate and anger and the fear of losing their Caucasian Patriarchy. Don’t think for one second that they wouldn’t kill, metaphorically or literally, to preserve their authority over you.

So please encourage all who you know to stand up — for their own dignity, for this last chance to save what we have, to do it for those who came before us, who gave their lives, who suffered through poverty to give us a chance, my grandmother, desperate to feed her children, who went door to door in the nicer neighborhood of Flint and offered to iron their clothes for a dime. 

I do it for her. And for you. I do it with Luke who wrote that tweet saying he’d be proud to have an asylum-seeking immigrant family living next to him. 

I do it for us, the majority. 

ICYMI: Mike’s Midterm Tsunami of Truths: Truth #1: The Campaign Truth #2: Even a kid from 4th hour Trig class can beat this crowd Truth #3: The Haters, the Bigots and the Supremacists Always Lose in the End Truth #4: Introducing The Whackadoodle 10 Truth #5: Trump is not the Big Bad Wolf. But he is very afraid of You. Truth #6: The Easy-to-Digest Republican Party Platform Truth #7: Biden, Don’t F**k with Me Truth #8: If you’re not registered, you can’t Roe, Roe, Roe the Vote! Truth #9: Why will we win? Because the American people hate fascism. Truth #10: Meet Blake Masters, Whackadoodle No. 9 Truth #11: 147 Reasons We Will Win on November 8th Truth #12: Biden just gave us a boost and a toke. Truth #13: Women. That’s it. Truth #14: If the Mainstream Media Thinks There’s a Chance We May Be Right about Roevember, Watch Out. Truth #15: Republican candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, Whackadoodle No. 8 Truth #16: As Alex Jones has now been fined a billion dollars for his lies, that is nothing compared to the punishment other Republicans are going to get on November 8th. Truth #17: Early Voting, Mail-in Voting, Dropbox Voting — These Were Made for Libs, Hard Workers, Book Readers, Artists, Busy Parents, Slackers, and Progressives like us! In other words, The Majority! Truth #18: The Good Queen vs. The Mad King Truth #19: A Workers' Revolt Extends to the Voting Booth Truth #20: We Are in Charge Truth #21: Don’t believe it. Truth #22: If the election is about inflation and the economy, THANK GOD — We Win Truth #23: We Believe in Science. And that’s why we will win. Truth #24: Vote Local, Win National Truth #25: The side with the best nursery rhymes wins. Truth #26: We Will Win Because Americans Don’t Want to See This Happen...

Political Violence Dangers escalate DAN RATHER AND ELLIOT KIRSCHNER OCT 28 Photo credit: Matt Hansen Photography We are still learning about the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, at the couple’s home in San Francisco early this morning. In a fast-moving story like this, new facts will emerge, and what we know might change. But the assault appears to represent a targeted attack on Ms. Pelosi by a man whose online profile suggests he is fully immersed in the conspiracy theories and hate speech of right-wing rhetoric. The fact that she wasn’t home might have saved her life. Thankfully, Mr. Pelosi is expected to make a full recovery. In short, early indications are that this was an assassination attempt.  We should not be shocked that this happened. We have seen the storm clouds of political violence assemble. There is a direct line from January 6 to today. And it stretches even farther backward. We should be very careful about using the term “fascism,” but a political system plunging toward normalized violence and instability is one that is taking on very dark undertones.  Nancy Pelosi has long been a lightning rod for Republican ire. But something changed alongside Trump’s mainstreaming of viciousness and allusions to violence that were not previously acceptable in modern American political discourse. Pelosi's personal safety and that of her peers has become less certain. That many of her colleagues on the other side of the aisle wink at or outright encourage political threats makes the situation even more dire.  There is a swelling mass hysteria on the political right.  It is lubricated by lies, bigotry, misplaced grievances, and apocalyptic rhetoric. It can be found in the memes on social media, the chants of “lock her up,” the armed patrols of voting drop boxes, and certainly the violent attempted coup at the Capitol.  Just as last night's intruder reportedly shouted "Where is Nancy?” the rioters streaming through the Capitol hallways on January 6 were also looking for the House speaker. Do we really need to speculate what might have happened if they had found her? In many countries around the world, political violence is the norm. We like to pride ourselves in the United States that we are different. We point to the fact that partisans for both parties have traditionally respected the results of our free and fair elections. We boast about our peaceful transfers of power. How did all that work out in 2020? What are the prospects for the midterms less than two weeks away? What about 2024? There will always be people who, for reasons such as radicalization or mental illness, will be a threat to political leaders. We should recognize that political violence is in fact not new to the United States. Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated while in office. Several more have survived attempts on their lives.  But just as climate change doesn’t create hurricanes but does make them more dangerous, the poisonous discourse spewed on Fox News, inundating social media, and echoed by many Republican elected officials pushes our political environment closer to the edge of an abyss. It’s too late to say someone might get hurt. Many already have. And we should not expect much soul searching from those immersed in the cult of personality animating Trump and the most extreme of his followers. But hopefully, events like this will cause enough Americans to pause, step back, and remember we are all human beings.  We want to say this is not who we are. We are desperate to believe it. And I think most Americans agree. But violence and the threat thereof doesn’t need anywhere close to a majority in order to wreak havoc. And that is why it must be condemned, prosecuted, and thoroughly repudiated.

RSN: FOCUS: Charles Pierce | Democrats Need to Remember What It Means to Be a Workers' Party

 

 

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FOCUS: Charles Pierce | Democrats Need to Remember What It Means to Be a Workers' Party
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "Between price gouging and stock buybacks, it's time to talk about what's really driving inflation."

The next time you see a Republican ad that blames the Biden administration for inflation in general, and gas prices in particular, remember this story, point, and laugh. And the next time you see a timid corporate Democrat start meeping about inflation in general, and “sacrifice” in particular, remember this story, point, and spit. From CNN:

Shell will buy back $4 billion worth of shares and increase its dividend by 15% after posting another gigantic quarterly profit thanks to strong oil and gas prices. The UK company posted net income of $9.45 billion in the third quarter, more than double the $4.1 billion it recorded a year ago. The result was driven by a strong performance in its oil exploration and production business, Shell said. The company’s stock at one point rallied more than 4% in London on Thursday as investors cheered the news. The additional buybacks will increase total share purchases for the year to $18.5 billion, some 10% of the company’s share capital.

It may come as some surprise to you all to learn that stock buybacks of this kind used to be illegal. The Security and Exchange Commission frowned on them. So did most economists. From the Harvard Business Review:

Why have U.S. companies done these massive buybacks? With the majority of their compensation coming from stock options and stock awards, senior corporate executives have used open-market repurchases to manipulate their companies’ stock prices to their own benefit and that of others who are in the business of timing the buying and selling of publicly listed shares. Buybacks enrich these opportunistic share sellers — investment bankers and hedge-fund managers as well as senior corporate executives — at the expense of employees, as well as continuing shareholders.

It will come as no surprise, however, to the regulars here at the shebeen to learn that it was under the Reagan Administration that the SEC adopted a new rule that immunized corporate CEOs from charges of stock manipulation that might arise from such buybacks. This made a lot of people very wealthy, and it also disfigured the economy the same way that all those old SEC fuddy-duddies said it would. In fact, a 1% tax on buybacks was central to the funding mechanism for the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act last August.

More to the point, Shell’s announcement makes anyone running on inflation and/or gas prices look like a fool. There’s been price gouging all over the lot since the pandemic broke out. Rep. Katie Porter already got an anti-gouging bill through the House.

But somewhere between Reagan’s election and now, Democratic candidates have lost whatever it was that allowed Franklin Roosevelt to welcome the hatred of the “malefactors of great wealth.” It ought to be easy to argue as ferociously against price gouging as the Republicans are arguing against inflation—easier, actually, because there’s substance behind an anti-gouging campaign and actual legislation aimed at correcting it; whereas the Republican railing about “inflation” uses the term as a mere conjuring word, and the people invoking it have no substantive plan to deal with it. But sometime over the last 40 years, as a national party the Democrats lost the ability to discuss class with the appropriate vigor and fire. This Shell story should be a live grenade to toss into every Republican congressional campaign. But I’m not sure the Democrats could even find the pin.

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: How Election Day became Election Month

 

View in browser   BY ZACH MONTELLARO With help from Ben White and Matt Dixon A volunteer cuts out "I Voted Today" stickers. | Mark Makela/Getty Images THE ROLLING ELECTION — Election Day is dead. Long live election month. The pandemic changed many, many aspects of American life for good. One of those you might not have thought about is exactly when Americans vote. The Covid crisis accelerated a trend of more people voting in ways other than in-person on Election Day. The 2020 election marked the first in modern American history where a majority of voters cast a ballot ahead of Election Day; According to the Election Assistance Commission , a federal government agency, just 30.5 percent of voters voted in-person on Election Day in 2020, compared to 58.2 percent in 2018 and 54.5 percent in 2016. We’re unlikely to hit that high of a number again. But we could be headed for the first normal(ish) election where we approach an even split of Americans voting on the big day, and those who did so earlier — either via the mail, or early in-person. Already this year, for example, at least 17.4 million Americans have voted, according to the United States Elections Project . Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida who runs USEP, told Nightly that while it was a little too early to project a final number, his “guess would be that we’re going to see somewhere around 45 to 50 percent of votes cast early this election.” Some of that is because early and mail voting has generally become easier. Eight states and the District of Columbia will mail all their active, registered voters a ballot, up from four in 2018. More states have also expanded access since then to no-excuse mail voting (such as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts) and early-in person voting (like Kentucky) as well. All told, the National Vote at Home Institute, which supports expanding mail voting, recently estimated that mailed-in ballots alone could account for 35 percent of all ballots cast this year. Part of the change is cultural, too: Some people who voted either early in-person or by mail for the first time in 2020 could have just found it convenient, and will stick with it going forward. “I do think the pandemic had a side-order effect,” said Gerry Langeler, the director of research and communications at NVAHI. “I do think it is unfortunate that it occurred this way, but the side effect is getting more people comfortable with mailed out ballots that may not have used them before.” That has ramifications for both campaigns and the election administrators who actually run elections throughout the country. Increased early voting can be both a blessing and a curse for campaigns: Once someone votes early, campaigns don’t have to spend any valuable resources knocking on their door or pushing ads their way anymore. But it also means that there could be less persuadable voters overall to reach as Election Day nears. For election administrators, all of this has changed the way how offices are run. Operating an in-person polling place and processing mail ballots are two totally separate things that have different staffing and resource needs. It has also extended elections in the other direction, with conclusive results not always arriving on the night of the election anymore. That has presented the opportunity for misinformation — namely from former President Donald Trump and his allies. “Voters are accustomed to knowing, or at least thinking they know, what the results are on election night,” said Al Schmidt, a former Republican Philadelphia elections official, adding that Trump took advantage of voters’ expectations in 2020. That expectation for immediacy from voters — and yes, impatient reporters in the media — has been a source of frustration to some election officials, who regularly note that results have never been official on the night of the election. But that tension isn’t going away anytime soon: Already, Pennsylvania’s secretary of state has pleaded for patience this year, saying it could take a couple days for all the votes to be counted this year. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at zmontellaro@politico.com or on Twitter at @ZachMontellaro .   NEW AND IMPROVED POLITICO APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. With a fresh look and improved features, the sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. Already a POLITICO app user? Upgrade today! DOWNLOAD FOR iOS  – DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID .     FROM THE ECONOMIC DESK MIXED MESSAGES — The fat pile of economic numbers released today were by turns pretty crummy (inflation remains too high) and sort of good (wages rising; consumer spending holding on), Ben White emails Nightly. Wall Street, for its part, latched onto the good, sending stocks sharply higher even as tech giants like Google and Facebook reported scary looking earnings. Let’s take the good first – The Labor Department reported that worker pay and benefits rose strongly in the third quarter with the Employment Cost Index up 5 percent over last year. That’s a strong number for workers but also somewhat troubling to the Federal Reserve because it adds to overall inflation that the central bank is desperately trying to bash down from persistent 40-year highs. But it’s slightly lower than the 5.1 percent pace in the second quarter so at least moving in the direction the Fed wants. The Commerce Department said spending jumped by 0.6 percent in September over August as measured by the Personal Consumption Expenditures index (PCE). Economists from Wall Street to Washington are on high alert for signals of any drop in consumer spending which would suggest a near-term recession. Now for the bad news – The overall PCE level rose a very high 6.2 percent in September from the same time last year, exactly the same as August. This means the Fed’s 3 percent worth of rate hikes this year have not done much yet. Overall, wage gains were totally eaten up by higher prices in September, a decline from August when “real” wages (adjusted for inflation) rose by 0.2 percent. And the personal savings rate fell to 3.1 percent from 3.4 in August. That’s less than half what it was at this time last year. All of this means that yes, Americans are continuing to spend. But they are using Covid-era savings to do it. Not sustainable. What it all means – The Fed remains on track for another three-quarter point hike at its meeting next week. And while Chair Jerome Powell may be able to at least hint at a path toward an end to hikes (something Democrats would very much like), he will still have to remain committed to doing everything necessary to tame inflation even if it means sparking recession.   DON’T MISS POLITICO’S 2nd ANNUAL DEFENSE SUMMIT ON 11/16: The United States is facing a defining moment in the future of its defense, national security and democratic ideals. The current conflicts and developments around the world are pushing Washington to reshape its defense strategy and how it cooperates with allies. Join POLITICO for our second annual defense summit, “At a Crossroads: America’s Defense Strategy” on November 16 in person at the Schuyler DC or join online to hear keynote interviews and panels discussing the road ahead for America’s national security. REGISTER HERE .     POLL WATCHER 55 percent The percentage of likely voters who support Democratic incumbent Rep. Sharice Davids in Kansas’ 3rd District, according to a new poll from The New York Times/Siena College . Republican Amanda Adkins has the support of 41 percent of KS-03 voters. The result, in a suburban district that Biden carried by just four points in 2020, is a surprise. It could be an outlier poll — or it could suggest that the midterm environment is not as grim for Democrats as many pundits believe. WHAT'D I MISS? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, on Capitol Hill in 2019. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images — ‘Where is Nancy?’: Pelosi home invader was searching for Speaker: The intruder who allegedly assaulted Nancy Pelosi’s husband in the couple’s San Francisco home early this morning was searching for the House speaker, according to a source briefed on the attack. The assailant broke into the Pelosi residence shouting “where is Nancy, where is Nancy?” before violently assaulting Paul Pelosi, according to the source. — Pharma trade CEO steps down after clashing with board: The leading industry group for biopharmaceutical companies is reeling after the departure of its CEO — just as the Biden administration is poised to begin implementing key drug pricing provisions and the balance of power could shift in Congress. Michelle McMurry-Heath stepped down earlier this month after leading the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a 1,000-member trade group that lobbies for policies impacting biotechnology products made in the healthcare, agricultural and environmental sectors, for a little more than two years. — GOP PAC floats NH Senate candidate with last-minute funding: A GOP super PAC is putting a seven-figure investment into the New Hampshire Senate race , providing a new source of outside funding for Republican Don Bolduc as polling shows him surging in the final stretch — but in need of more resources. Sentinel Action Fund, a super PAC associated with the conservative advocacy organization Heritage Action for America, confirmed the new $1 million ad buy. A spokesperson for the group said the ad — a negative spot against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan — is set to hit airwaves on Wednesday, and Sentinel may add to its buy. AROUND THE WORLD French President Emmanuel Macron (right) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris. | AP Photo/Christophe Ena TRADING PUNCHES — After publicly falling out, Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron have found something they agree on: mounting alarm over unfair competition from the U.S. and the potential need for Europe to hit back , write Hans von der Burchard and Clea Caulcutt . The German chancellor and the French president discussed their joint concerns during nearly three-and-a-half hours of talks over a lunch of fish, wine and Champagne in Paris. They agreed that recent American state subsidy plans represent market-distorting measures that aim to convince companies to shift their production to the U.S., according to people familiar with their discussions. And that is a problem they want the European Union to address. The meeting of minds on this issue followed public disagreements in recent weeks on key political issues such as energy and defense, fracturing what is often seen as the EU’s central political alliance between its two biggest economies. But even though their lunch came against an awkward backdrop, both leaders agreed that the EU cannot remain idle if Washington pushes ahead with its Inflation Reduction Act, which offers tax cuts and energy benefits for companies investing on U.S. soil, in its current form. Specifically, the recently signed U.S. legislation encourages consumers to “Buy American” when it comes to choosing an electric vehicle — a move particularly galling for major car industries in the likes of France and Germany. NIGHTLY NUMBER $6 million The amount of money California Gov. Gavin Newsom raised for Democratic candidates and causes ahead of the midterms . Newsom has quietly built a powerhouse fundraising machine, with access to 6 million emails and 1.5 million phone numbers in his organization. He is planning to raise more before Election Day. RADAR SWEEP ARTISTS AT BAT — Do you want to see Jackson Pollock in a baseball uniform? How about Helen Frankenthaler swinging a bat or Robert Rauschenberg patrolling center field? The Archives of American Art are gearing up for the World Series , which starts tonight, by releasing a series of baseball cards that combine artists and their work with the national pastime. Susan Cary writes about the series — and many artists’ long connection with baseball — for The Smithsonian Magazine. PARTING WORDS DISPATCH FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL — Tucked into a blocked-off parking lot of a Jacksonville union hall last week, the sun set on a few dozen of the region’s most fervent Democratic activists gathered to hear Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison. He was there to rally the troops ahead of a midterm battle that already feels lost, Matt Dixon writes in from Florida. Charlie Crist, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Florida, greets supporters. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images “This is one of the most important midterm elections of our lifetime,” Harrison said during the Thursday night rally. “We are ready to elect [Charlie] Crist. We are ready to elect Val Demings as our next Senator.” Those words fell flat. At the time Harrison took the stage, 838,000 people had already voted by mail in Florida, and Democrats had a 27,968 vote lead, or about 3.3 percent. One week later, Republicans have a nearly 31,000 vote advantage after more than 2 million people have cast ballots. In just seven days, the GOP erased Democrats’ early lead — and built an advantage that they are unlikely to relinquish. A 2022 red wave in Florida now appears inevitable. The DNC-led Jacksonville event was supposed to be a rally-the-troops moment for Florida Democrats, who knew even under the best of circumstances they faced historic midterm headwinds. But the event was anything but inspiring. Only a few dozen people showed up. Most of the Democratic statewide slate of candidates, including Demings, was not in attendance, which stoked internal gripes about the party’s failed coordination efforts. The crowd cheered at all the right applause lines during the event, but it was not hard to find open pessimism about the party’s chances. Florida Democrats have not won many races of real consequence over the past two decades — Republicans control every level of power here. But in most cycles, they would get close, often losing statewide by just a point or two, which gave the party hope that they are almost over the hump. That notion seems to be ending. The pre-election day voting numbers are awful for Democrats, who need to head into Election Day with a sizable lead to mitigate Republican base voters coming out in huge numbers on Election Day. That will not happen this year, and it’s likely to lead to one of the most lopsided election cycles in recent Florida political memory. Nothing, perhaps, served as a more fitting backdrop for the rally than the adjacent parking lot, which by the end of the event was flooded — even though it had not rained in Jacksonville for days. Rally attendees who had parked there had to wade through the water when they returned to their cars. I was told this was a very regular occurrence due to the aged infrastructure in that neighborhood. For grassroots Democrats likely walking into a midterm buzzsaw, the entire affair added insult to injury. Party leaders held a late-cycle rally that exposed a lack of organization and enthusiasm, then sent them off to a predictably flooded parking lot and commute home with soaked feet. A fitting end to a midterm that seems likely to see Democrats in Florida washed out. Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh Naomi Andu @naomiandu   FOLLOW US

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