Now we know exactly how to take the House majority
The NY-3 race was widely expected to be a tossup, being a special election (typically low turnout), and both Democrats and Republicans spending large amounts of money on it. Although Democrats are consistently outperforming their polls, to the tune of nearly 7 points on average, one other variable is that this contest took place in New York state, where the party had some embarrassing losses in 2022 that ultimately led to the Republicans retaking the House, and the only state where Republicans have had some luck with overperforming their numbers (despite the Democratic candidates still winning.)
The good news is that we not just won, but won NY-3 in a blowout, at a time that comes as a sharp repudiation of everything the GOP claims to stand for (running on the border didn’t help them – and Suozzi didn’t run away from the issue in his campaigning either – nor did their attempts at calling themselves pro-life.) We need to flip five seats for House control, and it so happens that we have at least five in districts that President Biden won by sizable margins in 2020: NY04: Biden +15 (the candidate is @LauraAGillen) #CA22: Biden +13 (@RudySalasCA) #CA27: Biden +12 (@gtwhitesides) #CA13: Biden +11 (@AdamGrayCA) #OR05:Biden +9 (candidate is Janelle Bynum @bynum4thewin).
It might seem tempting to want to donate to the candidates running against the most obnoxious members of the so-called Freedom Caucus – but like it or not, reps like Marjorie Taylor-Greene are on track to win re-election comfortably, where your donation in the aforementioned races can not only give us back ground we lost, but potentially give us seats to spare in the 2026 midterms. Small donations and volunteering helped us win back Tom Suozzi’s seat on Tuesday and it can do the same for these candidates on Nov 5.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making