The Wave Could Be Building . . .

Could be.  But I am simultaneously too superstitious and too realistic to say that it is.

But it could be.  I sensed that the political seas were getting churned faster than a whirlpool cranked to eleven when Michigan Democrats nominated Abdul El-Sayed to face Republican Mike Rogers for the state's open Senate seat.  Two moderate Democrats - both women, Mallory McMorrow and Hayley Stevens - were splitting the centrist vote against the progressive El-Sayed, so McMorrow withdrew and endorsed Stevens in an effort to blunt El-Sayed's momentum.  The move failed.  Michigan Democrats have had enough of Trump and MAGA and are ready for democratic socialism. 

Michigan Republicans and independents?  Yeah, that's just the problem.  No one knows how a Muslim who is pivoting to the far left in a state known for large Catholic and evangelical Protestant populations and a hunting culture where guys in plaid outfits shoot God's creatures.  But he does have appeal in Michigan's suburban areas and small cities.  But in overwhelmingly black Detroit, he's still seen as an outsider, given the uneasy relations between black Detroiters and Arab-Americans in Dearborn.  

But so far, so good . . . he's competitive.  And there's no scandal around him.  His name is clearly not Arabic for "Graham Platner." 

In Wisconsin, where the governor's mansion is up for grabs, it looked like the state's Democrats were going to slit their throats and nominate Francesca Hong, a leftist Wisconsin legislator who dismissed Thanksgiving as a patriarchal holiday.  That was too much for Wisconsin Democrats, aware that the Republicans had nominated an election denier who could help the 2028 Republican presidential nominee - who could be Donald Trump - could help that nominee cheat to win Wisconsin, chose sanity and nominated David Crowley instead.

But here's something to note.  Not only is Hong Asian, but Crowley is black, as was former future of the Democratic Party Mandela Barnes (he lost a Sente bid to Ron Johnson in 2022), and a fourth candidate for the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial nomination was a Latina.  In what is possibly the whitest state in the Great Lakes region,  it's possible that outgoing Governor Tony Evers will be the last Democrat to occupy the governor's mansion.  But not the last Democrat.

There are too many surprising Democratic primary winners across the country to talk about here, but it looks like opportunities for Democrats to win practically everything this year. People are fed up and want to put in a more productive Congress than the current 119th Congress, the worst Congress in eighty years.  There's just one thing - MAGA is working overtime to make sure that doesn't happen.  Without the ability for Congress to pass the SAVE America voter suppression bill, Trump is already trying to use his executive powers to limit voting by mail (even though he votes by mail himself, and he is already planning to send ICE agents to the polls to scare anyone who looks like the typical Democratic voter away.    

And if the Democrats win back the House and possibly the Senate, Speaker of the House and noted election denier Mike Johnson could simply decide not to seat the new Congress.

It's not going to be over after Election Day.

And I'm still a secessionist.