2026 Midterms Schadenfreude

Well, I didn't know if this would happen, but I feel the need to post some BlueSky election schadenfreude today. After all, I did spend half of yesterday standing outside in the rain at least 100 feet from a neighborhood polling place, just to make sure ICE didn't show up to keep people from voting. I think I deserve a treat. 

Unlike my usual round-ups, I'm attempting to put this into chronological order, except a few of the images, which may have been moved up or down if they didn't seem time-related. 

All posts below the line are from the attributed account, and posted at 5:40 p.m. Central Time.

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The disgusting and frankly racist way Haley Stevens uses Black voters as a prop in her demented and deluded power game is emblematic of a much bigger centrist Dem problem. It is utterly despicable across the board. 
Lydia Polgreen

If his name was Tom Smith, not Abdul El-Sayed, he'd win Michigan by 15 pts. He's a Rhodes Scholar, PHD, and dedicated public servant. He was the captain of his football team, and is Michigan born and raised. He's a husband and a dad. He's the all-American boy. Mike Rogers is Trump's little boy.
D. Earl Stephens

I hear Democratic operatives going on about how kitchen table issues matter. They do. But why the huge and disproportionate surge in black and Latino turnout? Surely it has to do with assaults on civil rights and immigrants. Democracy may not matter much to Democratic operatives; it matters to lots of Dem voters.
Bill Kristol

Added my I Voted sticker at the Alex Pretti memorial:


Sam L-L

if i'm getting this right, the closing message of the GOP is that "Palpatine and Vader were right"
Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social

It's perhaps unfortunate that if the Dems fail to win the Senate after everything that's happened, the press will treat it as a great victory for Trump and he'll treat it as permission to invade Cuba. And should the Dems win the Senate the press will downplay the victory by highlighting divisions among the Democrats while also calling for more bipartisanship. Trump will still invade Cuba.
The Alternate Historian

If Dems win today we need an earnest national moment to impeach and remove Trump. Nothing less. If he gets away with what he's done, it'll happen again, and again, and again
Craig Johnson

I'll be writing more about this later, but the fact that there are no ICE (or other armed) federal agents at the polls and no federal takeover of elections is not because we are "lucky" or our system is "strong:" it took a ton of hard work from lawyers, election administrators and civil society.
Rick Hasen

peggy flanagan wears a sweatshirt reading EMPATHY and a “pretti good” button with the minnesota flag for alex pretti and renee good as she votes today in st. louis park with her husband and daughter


taylr @taylordahlin.com

Just want to remind everybody that if the results from today's election are good, that only buys us time. After we get our party into power, *WE HAVE TO MAKE THEM DO WHAT WE WANT*. Otherwise, they will Schumer-away the opportunity.
Dan, Petard Hoister Extraordinaire @danielahedges.bsky.social

I’ll believe anything could happen tonight but I refuse to believe Florida won’t Florida
Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social

It’s hard to express how upsetting it is to hear over and over in media coverage how “affordability and cost of living” is the key issue in a US midterm election bathed in blatant criminality and corruption, overt fascism, aggressive racism and rights decimation, global warmongering, and outright treason.
Brent Toderian

For now, the press corps is focused on telling the story about voters punishing Trump for “policy failures.” However, the story should be about voters punishing Trump for his crimes, and the broad-based demand for the restoration of law and order. 
The Editorial Board


@pattho.bsky.social

goodnight everybody. tomorrow we start the second half of this wretched presidency and finally make it clear to these fucks they are trapped in here *with us*
the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social

I'm glad it's finally Election Day. I'm also worried about all of the music producers who designed all of those ominous tunes that played during the attack ads, I hope they put some of their wages into a savings account.
Travis Norvell @pedalingpastor.bsky.social

Obviously too late now but the ICE occupation should have been WAY more of a talking point in the Minnesota and national elections—not just for the horrific violence but also the social and economic impact. "Fraud" was the pretext for the ICE surge! And if you care about financial issues, well... If they actually cared about fraud, they would have sent accountants to Minnesota. Instead they sent armed troops to occupy a metro area, tear apart communities, and commit acts of unspeakable violence. They don't want to fight fraud; they wanted to do ethnic cleansing. 
Doug Mack

I turned on the local news and their top story is "prediction market credibility is on the line in this election." Yeah. That's my big concern. "But who will speak for the prediction markets?"
Steve Quick

As one who was a conscious human during Watergate, I feel confident in saying the crimes of the Trump regime and current Republican Party are at least two orders of magnitude worse. So analyses that say voter response may not reach mid-1970s levels of “throw the bastards out” just confound me.
@pattho.bsky.social

Whatever you think of Hasan Piker (and I don't think much of him), I will never forget how the world's wealthiest person is singlehandedly bankrolling multiple Republican Senate candidates, and is also posting about "Jewish DNA" on social media, and Republicans are never asked to disavow it.
Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social

ABORTIONS AND SOLAR PANELS FOR EVERYBODY
Gwen Snyder

I watched GOP governor nomineee Lisa Demuth invite GOP podcaster Nick Shirley to Minnesota to create predicate for Trump and Miller and all the rest invade, rape, beat, persecute, and kill my neighbors. All Republicans supported this. All Republicans FUNDED this. 
Brandi Bennett @bbennettesq.bsky.social

I'm gonna take this moment to point out to all the politicians who follow me that THE PEOPLE did their job tonight and put Dems in power now it is up to you fuckers to do YOUR JOB. Don't fuck this shit up like the Biden crew did. Clean house and do your job. 
Coach Finstock

If Hinojosa beats Abbott that is extremely bad for Elon Musk in particular. Dude moved everything to Texas because he was certain it would forever be a safe haven for his corruption, white nationalism, and misogyny. Whoops!
Max Kennerly

The absolute shellacking Republicans are taking makes the prior two years of capitulation by so many powerful people and organizations look even more pathetic
Gravel Influencer

imagine how bad this would be for republicans without half a billion bucks from elon musk. meanwhile, what could be more incriminating than spending half a billion bucks on this group of corrupt losers.
e.w. niedermeyer

You did it, Minneapolis:


Will Stancil

it's hard to keep track of all the assholes involved tonight but save a special space in your heart for Greg Abbott 
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

my prediction for the house majority was 242 seats and well it looks like that might have been a bit conservative 
jamelle @jamellebouie.net

I know everybody is understandably focused on the US Senate, but it looks to me like more than 75% of Americans will reside in states with Democratic governors, which seems like a very very big deal too.
David S. Bernstein

Ann Richards... her daughter Cecile Richards died before seeing Texas return a Democratic governor like her mother back in office.
@pattho.bsky.social

when you evolve Dummymander into its highest level it becomes Dummizard:


Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

Two years ago Trump won narrowly. American elites immediately folded and rushed to comply as he moved to consolidate power. Regular people stood in the gap. They organized and fought back and protected each other. Tonight belongs to them.
Leah Greenberg

yeah it turns out if you keep shooting people in the street and kidnapping children and making it impossible to get food or healthcare or education and then gloat about it, everybody hates you
Kat Abughazaleh

by the way, Hinojosa was one of the Texas legislators who left the state to try to quorum bust the redistricting last year, and Paxton tried to remove her from office. that's incoming Texas Governor Gina Hinojosa and unemployed Ken Paxton, for reference
Nute @nutedawn.bsky.social

LAWYER UP.
Rep. Robert Garcia

I bet we can call them weird now
Ian @brocktoon.bsky.social


Minor Spear Carrier @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social

Elon Musk is big dumb loser. Time for severe accountability. Wonderful, terrifying levels of accountability. Bad News for Peter Thiel: He's not the Antichrist after all. The Antichrist would have seen this coming! 
Gil Durán

I think we should offer thanks to all the Democrats who stepped up and ran courageous races in the face of endless media naysaying, vicious GOP propaganda, and Musk-fueled derangement, thoughtfully creating a new politics that appealed to people's basic decency at an extremely trying time in American life.
Greg Sargent

Let me know when a media member suggests a Republican who just won election should immediately work toward “bipartisanship.” Get these people off our screens.
Rev. Angela Denker

If I were a DOGE guy, ICE agent, or any other administration goon who's been involved in some shady work over the past two years I'd be seriously thinking about stepping forward to inform on my colleagues before they inevitably do the same to me
Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social

Our new Minnesota senator:


Bill Corbett

DID YOU KNOW: Congress can change the size of The Supreme Court 
Parker @jeffparker.bsky.social

no reaching across the aisle to work together. being a republican needs to be a moral stain, as unacceptable as we once all agreed that it was to be a nazi. before the republicans decided being a nazi was cool actually. they sent secret police to kill us in the streets. there can't be any walking back from that. 
Tom Tomorrow

Hope everyone remembers the Mamdani Prime Directive: Do all the cool shit you can to make folks lives better immediately. 
ETX Gov

As someone who lived in Florida for 12 years, I still struggle to understand what happened to Florida. If you'd told me 20 years ago that Texas would be a swing state, Georgia would be arguably a blue state, and Florida would be solid red. Best theory I can buy into is that Florida, while not particularly culturally conservative, is the perfect MAGA state: grifters and scammers are deeply ingrained in its history and ethos, and in my experience there is a real void of civic culture, which political opportunists can fill. 
Daniel Herriges

Always a good reminder that *land does not vote*:


Will @willwoodworth.com

Wisconsin has elected its first Black governor — and its first Latino and Hmong statewide elected officials, following the victories of Governor-elect David Crowley, Secretary of State-elect JoCasta Zamarripa and Treasurer-elect Yee Leng Xiong.
Wisconsin Watch

For the first time ever, at least 100 Democratic women are expected to serve in the the U.S. House simultaneously. 
19thnews

“It only took 124 years, but we’ve finally eliminated Jim Crow from the constitution of Virginia.” 
Taniel

I said this on the Native Land Podcast but I'll repeat it here: A dangerous narrative is going to be "the GOP gerrymandering didn't work." NO. It worked GREAT. We just OVERCAME it. But we'd have even MORE seats, and different candidates could have won those seats, without the gerryamndering. 
ElieNYC

Lmaoooo so Abdul el-Sayed is potentially about to make JD Vance swear him in on a Quran
bob barker @insortediaboli.bsky.social

not only was this the first truly decisive election in 15 years, not only was it the first real repudiation the MAGA Republican Party has experienced, but it is an earthquake in the South. with investment — and with laws protecting the right to vote — the whole region could be blue. 
jamelle @jamellebouie.net

First Black Woman Governor 
First Latina Governor 
First Latino Governor 
First Native American Woman Governor 
First Black Governor in FOUR States
First Muslim American Senator 
First Native American Woman Senator  
In response to anti-DEI, America elected MINORITIES:


Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.blacksky.app

Montana's campaign finance law passed, meaning "artificial persons" (corporations) can't make political contributions. 
Nietifa Van Suiker @lukewanderer.bsky.social

Democrats have 2 years to sell the public on a simple story: Trump and Republicans hate what this country stands for. Democrats are trying everything to hold them accountable and deliver relief for this battered, bruised, but still proud country. Rs are [unwilling cowed partners/unrepentant obstacles]. 
Evan Urquhart

extremely hilarious to me personally that everywhere they sent vance to campaign the candidates got the shit slapped out of them
jamelle @jamellebouie.net

three things that should be extremely clear after last night
- people hate the tech overlords and you need to go after them
- there's no reason to be scared of their money 
- there is no downside in bringing them to heel
Andrew Lawrence

Blue rooster at The Walker sculpture in Minneapolis:


Christy Klancher @stpauligrrrl.bsky.social

Voters absolute repudiation of everything the Roberts SCOTUS stands for must be understood by  the new majorities they elected to Congress as a mandate to rein in and reform the rogue court.
Philip Gourevitch

Just had the thought of Senator Abdul El-Sayed questioning a subpoenaed Stephen Miller 
Gillian Branstetter

Republicans in Congress have spent the last two years ceding power to an authoritarian so I'm going to be reallyyyyy interested in the kind of coverage we get when congressional Democrats simply exercise their constitutional authority.
Gravel Influencer

Not a single new federal judge approved for the next 2 years. Any level. Not one.
Matthew “Bike Guy” @bikeguy.bsky.social

every single one of the 28 measures opposing data centers won; organizing for those measures, against oligarchs, against undesirable imposed tech, against surveillance, against cognitive destruction, against unmaking 
Anna Kornbluh

The Democrats popular vote margin is the largest of any party's since 1976:


Owen Winter

Minnesota Politics: the MNGOP ran the least weird candidates and the smoothest campaigns in many years. They had an issue that voters seem to find compelling and a massive national propaganda fund behind them. They lost statewide races by 8-13 points. Not even close. 
David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social

What if the federal government wasn’t an active antagonist? The war in Iran costs 150% of Saint Paul’s annual budget per day. So we can go ahead and stop doing that. And then knock 10% off the military budget for starts.
Tom Basgen, Mr. Saint Paul

WEED IS ALIVE AND DAN PATRICK'S POLITICAL CAREER IS DEAD:


Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social

Me: So the country now has elected officials named Peggy Flanagan and Deb Haaland.
Time-traveling Thomas Jefferson: An Irishwoman and a Swede?!
Me: Well, no.
Thomas Jefferson: Oh, thank God.
Me: But.
Human Resources Haldeman @gonebabygone.bsky.social

Remember, the next ninety days or so, are going to be the most dangerous of his Administration… They will try to break us, and they will fail. Are you READY?!
California Dreamin’ @jerasikehorn.bsky.social

The American people I know here in the ol’ heartland are ready for Reconstruction.
Molly Coleman

I'm at a pre-dawn appointment in Edina, so I stopped for coffee. As I was leaving a woman approached to take my table. We locked eyes. I said, "Isn't this the best?" which led to a hug, and her tears. She gulped. "I've been afraid for my children's lives for 2 years." Well done, America.
MaryMM

The White House is a crime scene. Accountability is not retribution.
Jon Cryer @mrjoncryer.bsky.social

Elon realizing his businesses are now in a blue state!


wingador.bsky.social

Hakeem Jeffries' “We’re not looking to get even” will be the new “look forward, not back” and anyone intending to back up this message must be swiftly pushed out of important spaces (and punted into the sun). 
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social

Really, really important for Democrats to understand that if we allow "enforcing the rule of law" to be redefined as "getting even" we are cooked.
Hamilton Nolan

With Mississippi's U.S. Senate race effectively tied, know this: About 70,000 people in Mississippi are blocked from voting because of felony convictions. *Two-thirds* of them are Black—a huge overrepresentation in a state where Black people make up less than 40% of the overall population. 1/3
Alex Burness

The other big winning message from last night BETTER be "we are taking back voting rights" because if you look at last night and you don't see Black people out-mobilizing the most restrictive voting environment we've seen since Jim Crow, you're missing the entire story of half of last night. 
Courtney Milan

they seriously murdered people in the streets and tried to make fancams about it and expected to be rewarded
QuoProQuid

geographers, what are we calling this diagonal?


Henry Grabar

America's skid mark.
David Roberts @volts.wtf

Gerrymandering blocked Dems from gaining unified control over state government in GA, NC, TX, and maybe OH. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans live in those states. Many House races remain uncalled, but my very prelimiary estimate is gerrymandering cost Dems 2 dozen seats—only NC’s map fully fell apart
Stephen Wolf

The rule of law is not a partisan thing, it is the fundamental agreement that we all abide by because we live in a society. If you don’t follow the rules, you to pay a price. So enforcing the rules isn’t about getting even, it’s about making sure that the system continues to exist. Enforce the law. 
Norm Charlatan

indeed. if civility is a real substantive commitment and not mere aesthetic table manners - that is, if it's a commitment worth having - it not only *allows* for expelling concentration camp aficionados from the realm of "polite company", it *requires* it
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

To win Kansas, Adam Hamilton flipped the state’s Hispanic meatpacking counties and outran Kamala Harris almost everywhere else — including in its most religious counties:


Steve Rattner

Instead of being impeached, Hegseth needs to be in jail for the rest of his life for murder along with the entire chain of command involved in executing those people in the caribbean 
Andrew Lawrence

there is tremendous joy in knowing the right got everything they ever wanted, Leonard Leo’s plan to sieze control of the courts worked, and now it’s turning to ashes in their mouth
Sky Marchini

I am so fucking tired of "seeking justice" being framed as "getting even." Arresting and/or impeaching people who are legitimately guilty of actual crimes is not revenge. It is justice. Innocent people should be released from detention and guilty people should be in prison. Again, that is JUSTICE.
Annalee Newitz

More good news incoming: Prices for crude oil have been today in free fall, losing 8% in a matter of few hours. The markets are obviously relieved regarding the midterm results in the USA. Bad news for Putin and his lesser minions.


@tendar.bsky.social

the more i think about vance's immediate "uh don't blame me it was the war that i definitely opposed" move the more i think the thing to hang on him is that he is craven and pathetic. like a henchman that switches sides at the first sign of trouble.
jamelle @jamellebouie.net

The political press has a mandate to stop being Republican lapdogs.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social

Lmao you want to hear something trippy? Not a SINGLE House race rated Leans Republican by the Cook Political Report, on the eve of the election, has been called for the Republican candidate (per NYT). It is 2 p.m. on Wednesday 
Robert Black @hurricanexyz.bsky.social

a genuinely crazy fact is that annie andrews will hold the seat previously held by noted demons john c. calhoun, "pitchfork" ben tillman and strom thurmond
jamelle @jamellebouie.net

I think Democrats need to clearly state what they think Republicans are going to try to do in the next two months so people understand it and are ready to oppose it. Trump is absolutely going to want to jam through an Alito replacement. We need to make Republicans afraid of even trying. 
Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social

Minnesota had the highest voter turnout rate in the nation Tuesday. Unofficial results show 2.93 million ballots were cast in the state. That’s two out of three eligible Minnesotans, according to figures from the University of Florida’s Election Lab.


MinnPost

Impeaching Trump would be pointless. Let's please not start a big round of infighting over it. Among other things, the guy is a one-man recruitment engine for Democrats! Impeach Vought, or Hegseth, sure. A failed impeachment of Trump would not serve anyone's interests. Adding: you are never going to dissuade narcissistic authoritarians like Trump from being the way they are. What you need to do is dissuade the apparatchiks and hangers-on — convince them that the risk of hopping on the authoritarian bandwagon is too high. So: prosecute the Millers and Hegseths. If you've read the literature on democracies sliding into authoritarianism, you know that the key deciding factor is *whether the center-right joins in*. How do established conservative powers respond to the rise of an authoritarian demagogue? Let's convince them it's a bad decision to join in.
David Roberts @volts.wtf

I don't want expensive prosecutions that lead nowhere, I want the system that enabled and enacted the harm to be defunded and abolished, I want to ensure the people in them aren't just permitted to fade back into positions "regular" police, prisons, jails, probation and parole, I want closure of ALL camps 
Andrea Ritchie @dreanyc123.bsky.social

All this talk of "getting even" or payback or whatever. It's not "getting even." It's enforcing the law. Say that. Correct that. Don't fall into that trap. There's absolutely no reason to.
Josh Marshall

Democrats have won more votes than any party in midterm history: 66 million and counting:


Steve Rattner

As a general note, I think one lesson Democrats should have learned is that there's nothing to be gained in being slow and methodical. The way to succeed in this media environment is to do *everything at once, all the time*. Always be acting, setting the agenda, dictating the news cycle. Move, move, move. 
David Roberts @volts.wtf

Move fast and fix things 
Move fast and build things
Move fast and care for things
Climate, health, education, infrastructure, lands & waters - there’s so much to make right. 1
Meade Krosby

They’re saying being on Bluesky gives you an information advantage, which I can confirm since Bluesky is one of the only platforms where I get information anymore
Kat Tenbarge

They were right about Bluesky being a bubble: It’s a high-information bubble. I’m shocked how much more I know about what’s happening than people who still rely on other social media platforms for news. Not having an algorithm between you and direct information is crucial for an objective reality. 
Rob Sheridan

One of the things that we need to demand from a Blue Congress? Post Office reform. As in, stop fucking them over funding wise, replace and/or upgrade everything Louis DeJoy destroyed, and get an entirely new Board of Governors. USPS is a wonderful thing - let's return it to form!
Toni @hudzinachick.bsky.social

update. regarding the murdoch tabloid “the new york post.” you do, in fact, “gotta hand it to em”:


karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social

It’s still close, but Lauren Boebert is 5,000 votes behind and may be 100% done. 
CZEdwards

Tennessee's gerrymandered districts mostly served their purpose. Pooling all house races, 45% of voters chose a D while 55% chose a R. Yet Ds only won 1 of 9 seats (11%), just barely. If that's the best the state can do in this climate, something is unfair.  
Sean Corcoran

There's a real question of whether the GOP is *capable* of changing course or learning. Who is in charge of it, other than Trump? The party is driven by influencers (even their elected pols are influencers) and the influencer economy rewards spectacle and extremism. There's no frontal cortex left.
David Roberts @volts.wtf