Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In last night’s Senate debate in Mississippi, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) sort of expressed regret for her “public hanging” comments, saying she apologizes to “anyone that was offended.”
* On a related note, the Republican incumbent encouraged voters to support her on “Nov. 22.” The actual election day is Tuesday, Nov. 27.
* In one of the few undecided races, Ben McAdams (D) eked out a narrow victory over two-term Rep. Mia Love (R) in Utah’s 4th congressional district. The final margin was 0.258%, which as the Salt Lake Tribune noted, “was barely outside the 0.25 percent that would have allowed Love to request a recount.”
* On a related note, the Buffalo News reports that Rep. Chris Collins (R) is the apparent winner in New York’s 27th congressional district, despite being under felony indictment.
* In California’s 21st, there’s a very real possibility that Rep. David Valadao (R), who was declared the winner last week, will end up losing. If so, Dems may end up with a net gain of 39 or 40 for this election cycle. * If Republicans are counting on outgoing two-term Gov. Rick Snyder (R) to run against Sen. Gary Peters (D) in 2020, they should probably look elsewhere. The governor told reporters this week there’s “no” chance he’ll launch a Senate campaign. * FiveThirtyEight published an interesting analysis yesterday on voter turnout in this year’s midterm elections: “[T]he 2018 wave was indisputably unlike any other in recent midterm history: It came with exceptionally high turnout. Turnout is currently estimated at 116 million voters, or 49.4 percent of the voting-eligible population. That’s an astounding number; only 83 million people voted in 2014, by contrast.” * And for those keeping track, as of this morning, the Democratic lead in the U.S. House popular vote is up to 7.9%, up from 7.8% yesterday, and it may yet inch higher. For comparison purposes, note that in 2010 — which was widely seen as a GOP “wave” cycle — Republicans won the U.S. House popular vote by 6.6%. In 1994, which was seen as a Republican “revolution,” the GOP won the U.S. House popular vote by 7.1%.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
