Midterm Election Reactions
Ep. 93 w/ show notes
Ravi and Rikki give their deeper reactions to the 2022 midterms, setting out what we know vs. what’s still up in the air, which issues drove voters, how states like Pennsylvania surprised us, the importance of split-ticket voters, and what comes next for both Democrats and Republicans, including the stage now set for a 2024 showdown between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump.
Sources Used/Mentioned:
Clark and Washoe counties still processing tens of thousands of mail ballots that could swing election leads (The Nevada Independent, 11/9)
Katie Hobbs still leads Kari Lake in Arizona’s governor’s race. Who will win the remaining votes? (The Arizona Republic, 11/10)
Georgia U.S. Senate race heading to runoff (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/9)
Democrats pulled off one of the best midterms ever (Slow Boring, 11/9)
Democrats Might Have Pulled Off the Biggest Midterm Shock in Decades (The Atlantic, 11/9)
How Ticket-Splitters Are Making Their Mark on Midterms (NYT, 11/10)
VoteCast: Inflation top concern, but democracy a worry too (AP, 11/9)
How Moderates Won the Midterms (The Atlantic, 11/9)
National 2022 Early & Absentee Vote Report (Target Smart, 11/10)
2022 Election: Young Voters Have High Midterm Turnout, Influence Critical Races (Tufts, 11/9)
Midterm elections 2022: Key takeaways and race results so far (ABC, 11/9)
Tracking results where abortion access hangs in the balance (The Washington Post, 11/10)
Mr Gupta mentioned at some point that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida provided his own map for redistricting, and implied that it was gerrymandered. I am not so sure about this, despite the fact that a major media narrative appears to be that Republican legislatures are carrying out widespread gerrymandering in the 2020s redistricting. I have had a brief look at the US House figures in Florida and they seem to be fairly normal in terms of vote share vs seat share. However, this could be a case of gerrymandering hidden by a massive red wave - if this is so, we won't know for a few elections.
I will look further at Florida's election results and compare them with previous cycles and other states. I could quite easily be wrong, but my initial estimates show that Florida is much less gerrymandered than New Jersey.