The Lede
Texas is a Purple State Now. The Proof is in the Results.
Texas Democrats scored an impressive performance up and down the ballot and around the state in a midterm election year, their historical kryptonite, and are positioned to make a stronger push in 2020, writes columnist Chris Hooks. This was the best election result for Texas Democrats since at least 1994, and gives a lot of reasons to think that something has meaningfully changed in this state. It was an earthquake.
Something happened this year that has not happened before — Republican-leaning voters studied specific down-ballot races and broke ranks. That’s a terrible omen for Republicans, who spent the month before the election begging voters to vote straight-ticket R.
No one can say how much of what happened last night comes down to O’Rourke, but it’s definitely the case that it couldn’t have happened without him. Only time will tell what the race left behind. But according to O'Rourke's own terms — and let’s use a damn cuss here, in tribute to the man — it looks like he knocked it out of the fuckin’ park.
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From the archives
The New Migrants
Sarah Smarsh, author of Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, writes about her father's life on the road in the harsh post-2008 economy in this essay from 2016.
From the piece: “His last morning at my place, I helped him strategize the timing for his retirement and calculate how much money he could bring in before diminishing his returns on Social Security. I also shared a dream of mine that might affect his life: I would own a big place in the country. Lots of space for horses and chickens and dirt bikes. Next to the main house there’d be a guest house for Grandma Betty, I said. Another for him too, if he wanted.
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