Bringing Home the Bacon

Last week, I posted an article here about how, amid all the hell that coming from Trump and MAGOPs in Congress, there were (for reasons I explain at length) nonetheless reasons for optimism, most especially for taking back control of the House.  And picking up seats in a razor-thin Senate.  Probably not enough to flip the Senate, but "probably" is not even close to a certainty.  There's still a year-and-a-half ahead, the tariff price increases haven't kicked in yet, MAGOPs seem like they may pass the Trump budget bill that is massively underwater in popularity (by between -19 and -29 points across five polls) and Trump has dementia which is degenerative.

And I noted, too, that all such political discussions, whatever the topic, however much evidence there may be, always must end with -- "I hope."
 
Just to add more hope in your Hope Chest:
 
Late Friday afternoon, I came across this news item on RawStory –
 
"A centrist Republican who has a history of pushing back on President Donald Trump won't seek re-election, and may have opened the door for Democrats, according to a report.
 
"Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) plans to retire at the end of his term, two people familiar with his plans told Politico on Friday night.
 
"Bacon represents Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, a swing district that voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024."

At the moment, the MAGOP can only afford to lose two seats in the House.  (There are two Special Elections coming this year, which could change that, however both of the Special Elections are in heavily Blue districts where the sitting Democrat passed away, and the party should easily retain both seats.  One of those two races is in Texas, where the then-sitting Democrat won his previous election with 69%.  The other is in Arizona where the sitting Democrat at the time won by 27 points.  And his daughter, who is an Arizona elected public official, is a candidate to run for her father’s seat.) 
 
So, if the margin MAGOPs hold in the House is, indeed, just two at the moment -- and it should be -- that means that, with Don Bacon not running for re-election, and a very strong likelihood Democrats will flip that seat, MAGOPs can only afford to lose one other seat in the Mid-Terms.

And that was all I was going to write today for this Hope Edition addendum to my article last Friday.  The things is, though, the world o' politics is a very fast-changing morass.

So, I now must add that on Sunday, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) announced that he will not be running for re-election.  Though North Carolina likely could be considered a state that very slightly leans Red, that's comes with a lot of asterisks.  Most notably because it also has a Democratic governor.  And a Democratic governor.  And Tillis was considered one of the most vulnerable MAGOPs in the Mid-Terms.

So...updates in Hope as they occur.