In today’s Times, Jeremy Peters nailed it: “Democratic Embrace of Diverse Candidates Collides With Barbed Politics of Trump Era.”
Not only that, but also in today’s Times (the world-renowned newspaper which Donald Trump loves to hate), Patricia Mazzei and Jonathan Martin write, “Andrew Gillum Pulled Off the Upset of a Lifetime, Now Comes the Hard Part."
Coming from behind in the polls, the Bernie-endorsed Tallahasee major, Andrew Gillum, campaigned on a platform of universal health care. If he can whip the Trump-endorsed Daytona Beach Congressman, Ron DeSantis, 39, Gillum, an African American, also 39, will be in prime position to address Florida’s racist past.
Associate solitary reporter James Mulford, a Democratic operative who knows far more about Florida politics than even associate solitary reporter Johanna Jones, tells us that Gillum will beat DeSantis by at least ten percentage points.
That’s because DeSantis, fresh off his primary victory on Tuesday, immediately dove to the depths of the race card when he told his Trump-loving supporters not to “monkey this up” (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/29/ron-desantis-andrew-gillum-monkey-florida-elections-801685).
Given that Trump has perfected the use of the race card, such a statement by DeSantis plunges Floridians into being deluged by totally disgusting Trump rallies in the weeks and months leading up to Florida's gubernatorial election on November 6.
Trump will also be campaigning bigtime for Senate candidate Rick Scott, currently the Sunshine State’s governor, against incumbent Democratic senator Bill Nelson. As to that race, Mulford says that Nelson will win by at least fifteen points. “Floridians are totally disgusted with Trump,” Mulford tells us. “Happy Days Are Here Again!”
In other news, West Virginia’s Don Blankenship, a convicted felon, is a really, really sore loser. He came in third in the Mountain State’s GOP primary on May 8, and then he tried to pull a fast one by running as a candidate of the Constitution Party (we must always remember that Donald Trump has never read the Constitution — and probably Blankenshiup hasn’t, either).
Blankenship is the sleazeball former president of Massey Energy — the sixth largest coal producer, by volume, in the United States. In 2015, he was found guilty of conspiring willfully to violate mine safety and health standards related to the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion of 2010, which killed twenty-nine miners. He spent a year in prison for that.
But West Virginia has a “sore loser” law which prevents major-party primary losers from running on the ticket of a different party in November; and West Virginia’s Supreme Court yesterday tossed out Blankenship’s chance to spoil the re-election of Democratic senator Joe Mancin (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/29/west-virginia-don-blankenship-senate-ballot-denied-802716).
All in all, ASR Mulford and associate solitary reporter Melissa Smith tell us that come January, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) will be relegated to Senate Minority Leader, especially since in Arizona, 42-year old Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema is poised to defeat Congresswoman Martha McSally. Sinema, 42, is a superathlete and veteran Ironman competitor who has summited Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, a nation which Trump will never visit.