Member-only story
The Democrats’ path to a Senate majority
The odds may be against us, but it is possible
According to Nate Silver of polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, the Democrats now have an almost 80% chance of winning the House in the next election. That would be wonderful, and a huge success in and of itself given how successful the Republicans have been in gerrymandering the districts to their partisan advantage. At least Democrats would have the ability to block Trump’s most outrageous behavior while launching investigations into Trump’s various activities. The likely next Democratic chair of the House judiciary committee has said he will launch a more thorough investigation into now Justice Kavanaugh.
Unfortunately, this victory will do nothing to stop the march of the Republicans to remake the courts in their image. Already, Trump and McConnell have succeeded in confirming 84 judges to lifelong appointments. This success is in large part due to the fact that McConnell blocked Obama’s appointments, especially during his last two years in power, with Merrick Garland only being the most prominent example. To similarly block Trump’s appointments, we need to take control of the Senate.
Such a victory is so close we can taste it. As of right now, the Senate is divided 51–49. Since Pence gets to break any ties, Democrats need to net two…
