Politics Thread

POLITICO: ‘Dumpster fire’: House Democrats trade blame after Tuesday’s damage

So far, House Democrats have flipped just two seats — and they were guaranteed pickups created by court-ordered redistricting in North Carolina. They had not ousted a single GOP incumbent or won a single open-seat contest as of Wednesday morning. Instead, they suffered a string of demoralizing losses.

Some of those falls were expected: Reps. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico and Kendra Horn of Oklahoma all faced tough reelections in Trump-won districts. But the others shocked Democrats. The DCCC never bothered to place Shalala in its front-line program for endangered incumbents. And private polling from both parties had Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham with a large lead in his South Carolina district, but he fell to GOP state Rep. Nancy Mace.

Texas was a massive disappointment for Democrats, who invested millions in targeting 10 seats and even opened a satellite DCCC office in Austin. They failed to flip the massive West Texas seat held by retiring GOP Rep. Will Hurd — a district that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016.

Republicans held on to a rapidly diversifying seat in the Houston suburbs with a win by Troy Nehls, and they have a lead in another in the Fort Worth-Dallas area. Democrats had felt confident in flipping all three.

So far Democrats have lost six incumbents. And more could be coming. Many of their other members trail challengers in races too close to call.