‘The red wave did not happen.’ Assessing Tuesday’s vote, University of Illinois at Chicago political science Professor Emeritus Dick Simpson writes for Chicago Public Square: “National government will be gridlocked, with the Republicans holding a bare majority in the House of Representatives. But … in Illinois, the Democrats remained in firm control.”
■ The Washington Post said control of Congress remained unresolved early today, with too many races yet to be called …
■ … as the AP reported “razor-thin margins around the country.”
■ Slow Boring columnist Matthew Yglesias admits he was wrong: “Democrats pulled off one of the best midterms ever.”
■ Voters in five states voted to protect the right to abortion—with Michiganders enshrining it in the state constitution.
■ Indefatigable liberal cheerleader Michael Moore: “Millions … erected a force field around the haters and bigots.”
A Fox News website headline you probably didn’t see coming. “Trump blasted across media spectrum over Republicans’ midterms performance: ‘Biggest loser tonight.’”
■ Politico: “It was a good night for Joe Biden, and a miserable one for Donald Trump” …
■ Trump’s Republican nemesis Ron DeSantis romped in Florida’s gubernatorial race.
■ Semafor: “The White House is feeling very good.”
‘Don’t let the door …’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg bids farewell to unsuccessful Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey: “Maybe telling folks whose votes you need that they live in a ‘hellhole’ wasn’t smart.”
■ Gov. Pritzker’s stem-winder of a victory speech last night (see it here) is fueling talk of a run for the White House.
■ Politico’s Shia Kapos: The governor more likely “sees Trump as a danger to democracy in general.”
■ Democrats will keep their hold on the Illinois Supreme Court.
■ An Illinois workers’ rights amendment seemed headed toward approval.
■ Axios Chicago: Illinois is “a blue island in the Midwest.”
Other states, other outcomes. In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers won reelection and Sen. Ron Johnson was in a narrow fight to avoid defeat by a man who would be the state’s first Black senator. (Update, 11:59 a.m.: Johnson won.)
■ Iowa’s Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz: “Despite huge wins for Democrats nationwide, Democrats in Iowa have lost big time.”
■ Ballotpedia: “If the current results hold, there will be more state trifectas [states where the same party controls the governorship and both legislative houses] than at any time in the past 30 years.”
Whoops. Voters in a number of Chicago precincts weren’t given the second sheet of a two-sheet ballot …
■ … but, the AP reports, voting nationwide seems to have been “relatively trouble-free.”
■ Check updating granular Illinois election results from the Tribune.
‘Outstanding.’ Media critic Tom Jones calls Tuesday night’s TV election coverage “long on analysis and reporting and properly short on hyperbole and speculation.”
■ But he notes an ominous threat to a reporter from ex-TV news talking head Kari Lake, the Republican in Arizona’s nailbiter gubernatorial race: “I’m going to be your worst frickin’ nightmare for eight years, and we will reform the media.”
■ Rolling Stone: “Trump Keeps Musing About Journalists Being Raped in Prison. He’s Not Joking.”
Three other things.
■ Hideout fallout. Journalist John Greenfield’s fielding blowback for his reporting on the closure of a celebrated Chicago performance venue.
■ Closed book. Facebook parent Meta’s cutting its workforce by 11,000—13%—and founder Mark Zuckerberg admits it’s his fault.
■ ‘Would you like to see a picture of a Nazi or read a funny masturbation joke I wrote?’ USA Today columnist Rex Huppke: “I am noted billionaire spaceman-genius Elon Musk. I recently bought Twitter because I’m a free-speech absolutist, and now that I own Twitter I’m banning people who make fun of me.”
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