More good news for the Democrats for 2024

| 9:00 pm EST January 18, 2024
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Though the media has run with a number of stories about the Iowa caucus, the outcome of which was always fairly predictable, not much attention has been paid to Democrat Tom Keen’s victory in Florida’s HD-35, a fairly red seat that went for Ron DeSantis in 2022 by double digits, a reliably Republican district in a trending red state. Keen beat his rival by three points – winning an outright majority at 51%.

What’s remarkable is that only 39% of the district are registered Democrats – and it’s fair to say that not all of them voted for Keen, which means he enjoyed a share of the Republican votes (44% of voters living in that district are registered R), and also took a substantial number of non-affiliates and independents (16%).

His overperformance was consistent with the way in which Democratic candidates have been over performing in special elections since 2017 – a roughly seven point overperformance that’s been taking place since the Dobbs decision.

It’s clear that we have a rogue right-wing SCOTUS making reckless decisions that the majority of people are repelled by – and even those who don’t like Democrats won’t vote for the GOP – which has never really cared for the will of most of the voters and now isn’t particularly subtle about it. There are many more special elections in the month ahead – particularly the race to fill George Santos’ seat in NY-3. Let’s put in the work now and get Tom Suozzi elected on Feb 13, and put to rest the myth of Democrats in disarray.