Election Night Open Thread 3: What’s Not the Matter With Kansas

Things are looking a little better than the initial Florida results suggested. But whatever happens, we’ll have this:

One of the reddest states in the country just elected a Democrat in its governor race, rejecting a hardline anti-immigration activist whose rhetoric echoed and anticipated President Donald Trump.

Laura Kelly defeated Republican Kris Kobach and independent Greg Orman to win the governor race in Kansas on Tuesday night after a race that was often neck and neck between the two major-party candidates. Kobach, a polarizing, hard-right figure whose tenure as secretary of state was marked by legal battles over his voter registration laws, seemed to give Kelly a chance.

Kelly also campaigned hard against the deeply unpopular outgoing Gov. Sam Brownback, who stepped down in January to become an ambassador; Brownback’s 2012 regime of severe tax and spending cuts more or less starved the government. (The legislature, in a bipartisan vote, reversed many of the tax cuts in 2017.)

Outstanding.

And as the results come in, remember this:

The NYT currently projects a national popular-vote margin of D+9.2%. The largest popular margin since 2008, larger than waves of 1994, 2006, 2010, 2014.

1994: R+7.1%
2006: D+8.0%
2008: D+10.6%
2010: R+7.2%
2014: R+5.7%

By historical standards, this a popular wave. pic.twitter.com/4hw71hieVN

— Sam Wang (@SamWangPhD) November 7, 2018

There was a Democratic wave. The question is to what extent the anti-democratic aspects of American constitutionalism will disperse it, and in the Senate it seems like “a great deal.”

…And yes:

As we analyze the Florida and Georgia races we really shouldn’t ignore that the Republican candidates relied on racism and voter suppression.

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) November 7, 2018