Good morning. Are you excited about Darryl doing Senate poll watching? I am. But I do want to note that the polls are a snapshot in time in a series of events you can shape. You, yes you, can help influence who is in the Senate next year. You can make calls. You can text bank. You can donate. You can (and hopefully will) vote. You can knock on doors.
And you can get vaccinated for goodness sake. Or get boosted with the bivalent booster if you’re eligible.
Good morning. Are you excited about Darryl doing Senate poll watching? I am. But I do want to note that the polls are a snapshot in time in a series of events you can shape. You, yes you, can help influence who is in the Senate next year. You can make calls. You can text bank. You can donate. You can (and hopefully will) vote. You can knock on doors.
And you can get vaccinated for goodness sake. Or get boosted with the bivalent booster if you’re eligible.
Stephen: A fix for the chronic underrepresentation of Hispanics and Latinos on television
VICE News: Authors of banned books speak out
WaPo: How the NFL blocks Black coaches
LegalEagle: Don’t record your crimes!
NowThis: Black Women’s Equal Pay Day 2022—How to close the wealth gap
The Dotard Трамп:
The New Yorker: One woman’s mission to feed Harlem
Robert Reich: The truth behind “self-made” billionaires
Liberal Redneck: Stacey Abrams, heartbeats, and Georgia
Alicia Menendez: President Biden seeks to restore trust in American Democracy
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Election analyses are back! Today’s topic: Who will control the U.S. Senate after the mid-term elections?
We can answer this question by aggregating polling data that has been publicly released over the past year or so. The FAQ covers the methods but, in short, I am using polling data along with Monte Carlo simulation methods to assess probabilistic winners for each state and an overall probability of who will control the Senate.
Using voter preferences found in the past month of polls (whenever possible), 100,000 elections were simulated in each state. The result: Democrats had a Senate majority 82,684 times and there were 15,449 50-50 ties (these go to the Democrats, as VP Kamala Harris breaks Senate ties). Republicans controlled the Senate only 1867 times.
The results: If the election was held now, Democrats would have a 98.1% probability of controlling the Senate.
I’ll highlight just a few races.
Nevada is looking more and more like a Republican pick-up. Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, the incumbent, has been losing to Republican Adam Laxalt in the last 4 polls. These suggest she would only have a 17.3% probability of winning right now. This is a recent trend, as Cortez Masto has lead in most of the earlier polling this year.
Ohio: In this Republican-held open seat, Democrat Tim Ryan is running against Republican J.D. Vance. Ryan has the polling advantage, but Vance has lead in the last three of six polls taken this month. Control of the Senate may turn on whether Ryan gets his mojo back.
Pennsylvania: Pennsylvanians know a carpetbagger when they see one, and they look determined to send Dr. Mehmet Oz (R) back to New Jersey. By leading in every poll this year, John Fetterman (D) has amassed a convincing lead in the race.
Wisconsin: Incumbent Senator Ron Johnson (R) just might lose his seat to Mandela Barnes (D). Barnes has lead in most polls this year. The race, based only on the last month of polling, is a tie. This race may be the one that control of the Senate hinges on.
Back to the topic of control of the Senate, here is the distribution of seats from the simulations:*
This graphs shows the probability of at least each number of seats controlled by the Democrats.* There is about a 40% chance of Democrats having at least 52 seats, the magic number that gives some immunity to Sinema—Manchin Dyspepsia.
Expected outcomes from the simulations:
This table shows the number of Senate seats controlled for different criteria for the probability of winning a state:* Safe>0.9999, Strong>90%, Leans>60%, Weak>50%
| Threshold | Safe | + Strong | + Leans | + Weak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safe Democrat | 43 | |||
| Strong Democrat | 6 | 49 | ||
| Leans Democrat | 1 | 1 | 50 | |
| Weak Democrat | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| Ties | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Weak Republican | 1 | 1 | 1 | 49 |
| Leans Republican | 2 | 2 | 48 | |
| Strong Republican | 8 | 46 | ||
| Safe Republican | 38 |
This table summarizes the results by state. Click on the poll number to see the individual polls included for a state.
| # | Sample | Percent | Percent | Dem | Rep | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | @ | polls | size | Dem | Rep | % wins | % wins |
| AL | 0 | 0 | (0) | (100) | |||
| AK | 0 | 0 | (0) | (100) | |||
| AZ | 8 | 5210 | 54.2 | 45.8 | 100.0 | 0.0 | |
| AR | 1 | 618 | 41.3 | 58.7 | 0.0 | 100.0 | |
| CA | 0 | 0 | (100) | (0) | |||
| CO | 2 | 1448 | 56.3 | 43.7 | 100.0 | 0.0 | |
| CT | 1 | 1853 | 58.8 | 41.2 | 100.0 | 0.0 | |
| FL | 7 | 3775 | 47.7 | 52.3 | 2.5 | 97.5 | |
| GA | 10 | 8481 | 51.0 | 49.0 | 91.1 | 8.9 | |
| HI | 0 | 0 | (100) | (0) | |||
| ID | 0 | 0 | (0) | (100) | |||
| IL | 1 | 476 | 62.4 | 37.6 | 100.0 | 0.0 | |
| IN | 0 | 0 | (0) | (100) | |||
| IA | 1& | 514 | 45.3 | 54.7 | 7.0 | 93.0 | |
| KS | 2 | 1133 | 41.3 | 58.7 | 0.0 | 100.0 | |
| KY | 1& | 588 | 41.5 | 58.5 | 0.1 | 99.9 | |
| LA | 0 | 0 | (0) | (100) | |||
| MD | 1 | 666 | 62.9 | 37.1 | 100.0 | 0.0 | |
| MO | 2 | 1473 | 43.7 | 56.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 | |
| NV | 4 | 3069 | 48.8 | 51.2 | 17.3 | 82.7 | |
| NH | 3 | 2025 | 55.6 | 44.4 | 100.0 | 0.0 | |
| NY | 1 | 858 | 64.1 | 35.9 | 100.0 | 0.0 | |
| NC | 5 | 3899 | 49.1 | 50.9 | 19.8 | 80.2 | |
| ND | 0 | 0 | (0) | (100) | |||
| OH | 6 | 4276 | 50.3 | 49.7 | 60.8 | 39.2 | |
| OK | 2 | 818 | 37.4 | 62.6 | 0.0 | 100.0 | |
| OK | 1 | 459 | 32.9 | 67.1 | 0.0 | 100.0 | |
| OR | 0 | 0 | (100) | (0) | |||
| PA | 7 | 5181 | 54.7 | 45.3 | 100.0 | 0.0 | |
| SC | 1 | 546 | 40.7 | 59.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 | |
| SD | 0 | 0 | (0) | (100) | |||
| UT | 3 | 1198 | 46.6 | 53.4 | 4.6 | 95.4 | |
| VT | 1 | 996 | 53.5 | 46.5 | 94.4 | 5.6 | |
| WA | 3 | 1929 | 53.7 | 46.3 | 98.8 | 1.2 | |
| WI | 5 | 3815 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 48.4 | 51.6 |
@ Current party in office
& An older poll was used (i.e. no recent polls exist).
*Analysis assume that independent candidates will caucus with the Democrats.
Details of the methods are given in the FAQ.
Note: This IS NOT an open thread. The comment section for this post is for discussion of things like polls, elections, control of the Senate, etc. Any poo-flinging is welcome at a nearby Open Thread. Thank you!
Good morning. No smoke! I forgot to find anything to write about until now. Sorry?
Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.
Good morning. No smoke! I forgot to find anything to write about until now. Sorry?
Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.
Good morning. No smoke! I forgot to find anything to write about until now. Sorry?
Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.
Good morning. No smoke! I forgot to find anything to write about until now. Sorry?
Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.
Good morning. No smoke! I forgot to find anything to write about until now. Sorry?
Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.
The slow decline of Boeing in Western Washington has been gutting. Sometimes it’s surprising that there’s any meat left on the bone. And yet. Boeing is outsourcing corporate finance jobs to India. About 150 starting in October. This is nationwide, but surely it will take jobs from the Seattle area. You feel worse for the people doing factory work than these people. But still, it stinks.
Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.
Tonight! The Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally is getting together for an evening of politics, drinks and just hanging out. Stop by and join us if you wish.
The Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally meets every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern (2409 10th Ave E, Seattle) starting at 8pm out on the back patio.
Chapters of Living Liberally are all over the place…if you can’t make it to the Seattle chapter, there is probably another nearby chapter for you.
You can drive on the West Seattle Bridge. But also, if the Water Taxi, or working from home, or alternate routes, or whatever worked for you, the first rush hour might not be the best time to take it. Does anyone know if the C line will be faster? It couldn’t be slower, he types nervously.
Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.
Stephen: “The rules were fairly clear” in Nina Totenberg’s friendship with Justice Ginsburg
John Oliver: Law & Order
LegalEagle: Legal in the US, but not…
Robert Reich: How billionaires got so powerful
The Dotard Трамп, MAGA Republicans, and Other Flavors of Traitors, Liars, and Grifters:
The Late Show: ♫ Guess Who Saved The Trains? Joe Biden ♬
NY Times: OB-GYNs confront legal impact of abortion bans
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Hey, it’s rad that Maria Cantwell is introducing a bill to clean up a bunch of space junk. There is simply too much crap in orbit. I am glad that Washington is the kind of place that can elect nerds who care about space being a big ol’ mess. Get it done.
Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.
It looks like the Seattle teachers strike is over. The strike probably could have been avoided if the district was more reasonable.
Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible. Remember that there’s a new booster, so it might take a while. But it’s good to get.
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!