On Tuesday, voters all across America will go to the polls and decide the fate of Election 2018. Let’s take a close look at how several political matches are shaping up.
Politics
As of this writing, most political pundits expect Democrats to have a field day during Election 2018. Democrats are on the precipice of taking back the US House of Representatives and perhaps even the US Senate. Additionally, several traditionally Republican red states could turn blue on Tuesday, with Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke looking to upset GOP incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas and African-American candidates prepping to win governorships in Georgia and Florida.
Granted, anything can happen on election night. However, even Donald Trump is admitting he expects Democrats to retake control of the House.
“It could happen … could happen,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Huntington, West Virginia last week.
“Don’t worry about it – I’ll just figure it out,” Trump added in an attempt to calm jittery conservatives who fear the expected Democratic wins of Election 2018.
So, what are the most news-worthy stories and the top races to watch?
.
TRUMP vs. OBAMA
On Friday, former President Barack Obama headed to Florida where he campaigned for gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson. However, the usually “No Drama Obama” made certain to call out Donald Trump for his negativity and divisiveness.
“In the closing weeks of this election, we have seen repeated attempts to divide us with rhetoric designed to make us angry and make us fearful, designed to exploit our history of racial, ethnic and religious division that pits one against another,” Mr. Obama said. He then accused Trump by name of concocting “a political stunt” by ordering troops to the border to halt a caravan of Central American migrants (who are actually hundreds of miles from the US) that Trump says will soon infiltrate the US and (somehow) vote on Tuesday for Democrats.
“The Democrats want to invite caravan after caravan of illegal aliens into our country. And they want to sign them up for free health care, free welfare, free education, and for the right to vote.” — Donald Trump on Friday, Oct. 26th, 2018 at a rally in North Carolina
Mr. Obama also dressed-down a heckler who was hell-bent on being distractive.
“If you support the other candidates, then you should support the other candidates. Go to their rallies,” the former president said.
“Why is it that the folks that won the last election are so mad all the time?” he asked. “When I won the presidency, at least my side felt pretty good.”
We have “seen rhetoric designed to divide us,” Mr. Obama told the crowd. “In 4 days, you can be a check on that kind of behavior,” he added to raucous applause.
.
.
In response, Donald Trump accused President Obama of lying during his term about the Democratic health care plan, negotiating bad trade deals with countries like South Korea, and prosecuting journalists for reporting national security secrets.
“Lie after lie, broken promise after broken promise,” Trump said of his predecessor.
He then mocked Mr. Obama for daring to suggest “I should be nicer to the ‘fake news’ … no, thank you.”
Donald Trump is currently crisscrossing the country on behalf of Republican candidates running in Election 2018. Interestingly, he is creating fictional conflicts — such as the Caravan of Migrants/ISIS/terrorists he says are headed for America — and using the politics of fear to scare voters into supporting the GOP over Democrats.
.
BRIAN KEMP vs. STACEY ABRAMS
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp — who also happens to be running for governor against African-American candidate Stacey Abrams — is still relying on the old GOP tactic of voter suppression in order to tilt the election his way.
As previously reported on OK WASSUP! Kemp has canceled over 1.4 million voter registrations since 2012 and nearly 670,000 registrations in 2017 alone as part of a new Georgia law known as “Exact Match.” Under this law, if a name is missing a middle initial, is misspelled, lacks a hyphen, has added a period or contains or omits ANYTHING that does not EXACTLY match the name already on file, Kemp can purge that person from the voter rolls.
The Abrams campaign and several civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit against the State of Georgia for what they see as an obvious cheat to help Kemp win and prevent the state from getting its first African-American (and female) governor.
As a precaution, the Abrams camp has alerted voters that if they are turned away at the polls and refused their right to vote, they should obtain a provisional ballot. Those ballots can be certified and counted days after the election, meaning it’s very possible the Georgia governor’s race could be headed for a showdown.
.
.
O’ROURKE vs. CRUZ
According to FiveThirtyEight.com, the Texas senate race between Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke and Sen. Ted Cruz is a virtual tie and too close to call. Both O’Rourke and Cruz are polling at 49%.
The fact that a Democrat is even on the verge of a possible upset in Republican Texas is nothing short of a miracle. In fact, Texas hasn’t had a Democratic senator since 1993, when Robert Charles “Bob” Krueger represented the state.
Texas offers early voting which means many residents have already cast their ballots. Still, this contest could morph into a nail-biter come election night. Stay tuned.
.
Politics
If you happen to reside in Florida, Georgia, or Texas, MAKE SURE you exercise your civic duty and vote in Election 2018. In fact, make sure you vote regardless of the state you live in. Only 58% of eligible voters cast their ballot in 2016 — and we now have Donald Trump to show for it.
Don’t let this happen again. Our very democracy is on the line!
“As of this writing, most political pundits expect Democrats to have a field day during Election 2018.” -DJ
Yep…and most of those same political pundits, along w/most of America (including Myself) thought Hillary was most likely going to win in 2016. And then election day came and nearly 100 million eligible American voters couldn’t be bothered to vote,
I will say this though – so far “Early voting” this year seems to indicate strong voter participation. But that’s “early voting.” GOTV will tell the real story.
I am cautiously Optimistic about tomorrow’s turnout and which party the majority of voters will support.
Tomorrow’s results will tell Us a lot about ourselves, both as a people and a nation.