Thursday was a bad day for House Republicans.
In the morning, Maine officials declared that Democrat Jared Golden had defeated Representative Bruce Poliquin, the last Republican in Congress from New England, with the aid of the state’s new instant-runoff voting system. Then, in the evening, the Associated Press projected that Democrat Katie Porter would unseat Representative Mimi Walters, yet another loss for the GOP in historically rock-ribbed Orange County, California. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the O.C., Democrat Gil Cisneros edged ahead of Republican Young Kim.
There have been a surprising number of these bad days for Republicans since November 6, which was itself a pretty bad day. As the outstanding races continue to gradually come in, they are changing the way the midterm elections look. Instead of the “blue wave” that pundits predicted before Election Day, it’s more like a blue tide—rolling slowly but inexorably in and washing Republicans away.
Here’s a quick recap:
- On November 8, Kim Schrier beat Dino Rossi in Washington State’s Eighth House District, replacing Republican Dave Reichert.
- The same day, Lucy McBath closed out a win over Republican Karen Handel—who had beaten Jon Ossoff in the heavily covered 2017 special election in Georgia’s Sixth.
- On November 9, Katie Hill was projected as the winner over Representative Steve Knight in California’s Twenty-Fifth, north of Los Angeles.
- On November 10, Harley Rouda was projected to beat Representative Dana Rohrabacher in Orange County, in California’s Forty-Eighth.
- On November 12, Republican Martha McSally conceded to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in the U.S. Senate race in Arizona.
- On November 13, Josh Harder pulled out a win over Representative Jeff Denham in the tenth district, in California’s Central Valley.
- On November 14, Representative Tom MacArthur conceded to Democrat Andy Kim in New Jersey’s third district.