November 7, 2018

It’s Wednesday Morning, and the Election Was Still a Blowout for Democrats

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I  want to repeat what I said last night. The midterm results probably seem disappointing to Democrats because they lost so many high-profile races: Bill Nelson and Andrew Gillum in Florida, possibly Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Beto O’Rourke in Texas, and Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Plus a bunch of shaky House members won: Devin Nunes, Steve King, Duncan Hunter, and here in my own district, Mimi Walters. What’s more, it looks like Dems are going to lose all three of the razor-close Senate races: Montana, Arizona, and Florida.

But! Dave Brat lost. Scott Walker lost. Kris Kobach lost. Barbara Comstock lost. Dana Rohrabacher finally lost. And Dems picked up seven governorships.

But most important, Democrats flipped dozens of congressional seats and took control of the House despite running against a terrific economy. The last time we had an economy this good during a midterm was in 1998, when the party in power actually picked up seats in the House. The fact that Democrats did so well in face of such huge headwinds is a rebuke to Donald Trump and no one else. Suburban voters simply got tired of his racist and xenophobic schtick and turned on him en masse. The result was a historic victory for progressives.

So celebrate! The odds of doing this well when the economy was in great shape were tiny. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Progressives kicked ass this year, and no amount of spin from the White House can change that. Donald Trump will try, but he’s got nothing:

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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