Democrat Pat Ryan wins House special election, changing EVERYTHING about the midterms
Over the past month it’s become fairly clear that the Democrats have a strong chance of winning the Senate in the midterms. But we keep hearing from the experts that the Democrats are not particularly in contention on the House side. That hasn’t sounded right to us, so we’ve urged all of you to focus your activism efforts on the specific House races that are the most competitive.
First on the list was the special election in New York’s 19th District, which took place on Tuesday. The polls showed Democratic candidate Pat Ryan down by as much as ten points. But we considered it to be winnable, because the Supreme Court fallout, the Kansas referendum, and overall Democratic momentum have suggested that the Democrats could end up outperforming their poll numbers.
Sure enough, Democratic candidate Pat Ryan has been declared the winner of the special election. It’s not clear what the final margin will be, but it looks like it’ll be at least two points. Remember, this guy was supposedly down by about ten points in the polls. This means that he beat his poll numbers by at least twelve points. That’s stunning.
There are two points to be made here. First, numerous Palmer Report readers around the country made an effort to impact this special election, from donating, to volunteering online, to sharing Pat Ryan’s website and spreading the word. Those of you who made an effort should take a moment to congratulate yourselves.
Second, it’s now clear that the Democrats are in far better contention for the House midterms than polling up to this point has suggested. The work that you all put in on this race helped make the difference between this close win and what could have been a close loss. But it’s obvious that Pat Ryan wasn’t down by ten points to begin with.
The point is this: we now have a far more clear understanding of which midterm House races are indeed going to be winnable for the Democrats. And we now know that if we put in the work on these races, we can be what helps put these candidates over the top. To be clear, “we” means you. Think about how good it feels to have won this special election. Now imagine outright winning the midterms. Sign up right now on all of these Democratic candidates’ websites, so they can get you the information on donating, volunteering, and winning these races:
Sharice Davids • Elissa Slotkin • Abigail Spanberger • Mike Levin • Greg Stanton • Angie Craig • Chris Pappas • Annie Kuster • Dina Titus • Susie Lee • Steven Horsford • Marcy Kaptur • Hillary Scholten • Josh Harder • Jahana Hayes • Sean Casten • David Trone • Christy Smith • Rudy Salas • Gabe Vasquez • Greg Landsman • Michelle Vallejo • Adam Gray • Eric Sorensen • Frank Mrvan • Jared Golden • Dan Kildee • Emilia Sykes • Jamie McLeod-Skinner • Matt Cartwright • Chris Deluzio • Elaine Luria • Kim Schrier • Yadira Caraveo • Wiley Nickel • Jevin Hodge • Kirsten Engel • Will Rollins • Jay Chen • Cindy Axne • Carl Marlinga • Tom Malinowski • Bridget Fleming • Susan Wild • Nikki Budzinski • Katie Porter • Don Davis • Tony Vargas • Brad Pfaff • Marie Gluesenkamp Perez
Sign up for the Palmer Report Mailing List.
Palmer Report articles are all 100% free to read, with no forced subscriptions and nothing hidden behind paywalls. If you value our content, you’re welcome to pay for it:
Pay $5 to Palmer Report:
Pay $25 to Palmer Report:
Pay $75 to Palmer Report:
