It’s been a good week and some since the midterm elections and the Blue Wave that put Democrats in control of both the House and the Senate still hasn’t quite subsided. Vote counts are finally wrapping up in most places, though by Friday afternoon we still had around a dozen uncalled House races, and still no result yet in the final uncalled Senate race, in Alaska. There, Democrat Mary Peltola leads incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan 49.8 percent to 46.1percent, with 96 percent of the vote counted. Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system means that if neither she nor Sullivan gets 50 percent of the vote (plus one) in the first round of counting, then the second-, third-, and fourth-choice votes will be tallied until someone has that magic number. It’s fun if you’re a nerd! (CBS News / Anchorage Daily News / Alaska Public Media)
The end of the week brought some very pleasant surprises, and we sure like this unaccustomed feeling of winning.
Mississippi: Let’s Grin One More Time, ‘Kay?
Fine, fine, we learned Wednesday evening that Scott Colom defeated Chewed-Up Protein gristle Cindy Hyde-Smith, so this one isn’t exactly burning hot news. We’re still freaking jazzed by Colom’s win, and in Mississippi, everyone who isn’t a wingnut is pretty excited as well. Even the stodgy ol’ New York Times (gift link) rolled out one of its Grey Lady Allows A Smile headlines:
Hey, you have a guest link, go read it and smile when you read the incredible news that Colom’s win has some young Black voters thinking about staying in the state to make their lives after college, almost a radical change in itself. (NYT gift link)
Over at USA Today, there’s a lovely, moving reflection on how Colom’s victory has many in Mississippi thinking about Nina Simone’s rage-driven 1963 anthem “Mississippi Goddam” this week. Simone supposedly wrote the song in less than an hour, pouring into it her heartbreak and anger at the murderous cruelty of white resistance to the Civil Rights struggle; when she debuted it at Carnegie Hall the next year, she prefaced her performance with two brief sentences: “The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam. And I mean every word of it.”
Reporter Michael Collins deftly links 1963 and 2026: People have had it with the leaders who just don’t give a damn, like Cindy Hyde-Smith and her “Let Them Eat A Different Protein” answer to the high cost of beef, which inspired Colom to create another obscenity-filled shout back at those in power: “Pick another protein? Shiiiiiiiiit. I’d rather pick another senator instead.”
I was close to suggesting that the comparison — bombings and murders to high beef prices — risks trivializing the Civil Rights struggle. But then I caught myself, because even if it’s offstage in Colom’s ad, we all know ICE is brutalizing and murdering Americans (yes, even those lacking papers) and we couldn’t be sure democracy would survive.
But look what happened: Democracy survived. Democracy showed up in huge numbers, even in Mississippi, Texas, Georgia. And this week, people are even reclaiming Mississippi Goddam! — but this time it’s as a shout of victory and joy. (USA Today)
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Alaska … Governor? LOL!
While we were all waiting patiently for the results in the Alaska Senate race, former Alaska state Rep. Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins — who was endorsed by Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski too, so that’s a Nice! — went and crossed the 50 percent line in the governor’s race, beating out the other three candidates on the ballot, all of them Republicans. None of the others got close, so after CNN called the race early Friday, Kreiss-Tomkins claimed victory too, and then the top two of the three Republicans in the field conceded, and very graciously at that. We don’t know what’s up with the fourth-place dude. To make sure it’s all on the up and up, the ballot counting will continue until it’s all done.
Kreiss-Tomkins, 37, will take office December 7, becoming Alaska’s youngest governor; he’ll also be just the third governor actually born in the state, which is pretty neat. We guess he also just goes by just his initials, JKT, as if he’s president already, which hey, give him time. In a fun note about Alaska’s laid-back protocols, incoming governors get to decide where they’ll be inaugurated, though Kreiss-Tomkins hasn’t decided whether to be sworn in in Anchorage, Juneau, or possibly his hometown of Sitka. Cool beans, and congratulations, and Yr. Dok Zoom will now spend the next four years accidentally typing “Kreiss-Thompson” or adding an incorrect “p” to Tomkins. The JKT option is looking very attractive, frankly. (Alaska Public Media / Alaska Beacon)
Hold On, A Democratic Governor In Kansas? ANOTHER One?
Another pleasant surprise, at least for us folks who have been focused more on the Senate than on the states, came from Kansas, where the governor’s mansion, if they have one and we’re not gonna look, will have a second successive Democrat in it, state Sen. Cindy Holscher. She’ll replace two-term Gov. Laura Kelly, who was term limited. Yes, we said Kansas! Holscher won in a squeaker of a race against Republican Ty Masterson, the leader of the state Senate, who will now license his name to producers of Westerns.
Holscher, who made reining in the growth of data centers a focus of her campaign, declared victory Tuesday, a couple days before the AP called the race. Holscher made Masterson’s closeness to Donald Trump a key issue in the campaign, and the tariff-imposing war monkey just isn’t as popular in Kansas as he was two years ago. Masterson made some gestures at distancing himself from Trump, but Great Leader nonetheless came to Kansas to campaign for him, as well as for Roger Marshall, who lost his Senate seat to Mr. Rogers Rev. Adam Hamilton.
Masterson’s support of data centers, including tax cuts to attract the damned things, probably didn’t help his campaign, which also got a lot of advertising support from “Building the Future,” a pro-AI data center superPAC where we assume all the lobbyists have seven fingers on each hand.
Kansas staggers its gubernatorial and state Senate elections, so even after losing the governor’s race, Masterson will go right back to his four-year term leading the state Senate’s Republican majority. He’s up for reelection in 2028.
In case you’re counting, Democrats now have a supermajority of 30 governorships across this great nation, states where 75 percent of Americans live, and trifectas — the governorship and both houses of the state Lege — in 22 states. Yes, that’s a LOT. (NBC News / AP / TNR)
We’re Hollerin’ For Van Hollen
And back in Washington, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) announced Thursday night that he’s going to challenge Chuck Schumer to be the next Senate majority leader, but they’re so far keeping it civil. Politico lived down to its reputation as Tiger Beat on the Potomac with a piece suggesting that the entire Dem caucus in the Senate is “girding” for a protracted leadership fight, blah blah blah. O, zee drama!
Inside the Capitol, some Senate Democrats privately worry it’s exactly the wrong time to have a messy leadership fight, according to several people granted anonymity to describe private conversations. […]
There’s frustration in corners of the caucus toward Van Hollen, according to three Democratic aides, that he has injected division into what should have been a unifying moment. Van Hollen, and his supporters, in turn, argue his leadership bid is aimed at delivering exactly what voters want: a change.
And so on. We don’t particularly understand the argument that since the Senate had a great result, that means Schumer should automatically stay, since it certainly didn’t work the other way around all the times Schumer lost the Senate. But we at Wonkette pledge that will stay true to the vision of Yr. Editrix, who has (as always) the right, thoughtful perspective:
Chris Van Hollen is on Team Fight, and we’re for Team Fight. Now try to be civil about this, all of you filthy fuckaducks in the comments.
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ALSO TOO: Yr Fall Wonkette Book Club has just one more meeting to go, but it’s not too late to hop in! We’re reading Bill McKibben’s 2025 bestseller Here Comes the Sun (Wonkette affiliate link), all about how the clean energy revolution can get us out of our climate fix and even improve society somewhat (if we do it fast and do it right).
After a great first meeting and a superlative second outing, we’ll wrap up this coming Sunday (November 15) by reading Section Three, “Let’s Do This!”
On top of the usual discussion in the comments, we’ll also hold a live video book chat so you can Zoom with Doktor Zoom. If you’d like to take part, email me at doktorzoom at wonkette dot com with subject line “book chat,” and include a discussion question about the book and/or clean energy. More here!
Van Hollen went to CECOT and refused to leave until they let him see Kilmar Abrego Garcia. That looks like leadership to me.
I really like Van Hollen. I don't like Schumer much. He seems to think he's entitled to be the leader. Van Hollen wants to fight for it. We need the fighter.
I'd better stop here, I'm running out of civility ...