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Election Update: the U.S. House of Representatives

Despite losing six seats to the Democrats, the Republicans will maintain control of the Senate with 239 seats to the Democrats’ 193 seats. Consistent with the Presidential and Senate election outcomes, this is viewed as a very strong performance for the Republicans, who broadly feared losing more than 15 seats going into Tuesday evening.

Democrats flipped seven seats that were previously held by Republicans, while Republicans flipped two seats that were previously held by Democrats. Of the eighteen districts that were considered a toss-up by the New York Times going into Tuesday, Republicans won thirteen.

Of note for Washington residents, the Seattle seat held by retiring Congressman Jim McDermott for the last twenty-eight years was won by State Senator Pramila Jayapal. Jayapal will be the first Indian-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She moved to the United States in 1982 at the age of 16 to attend college, and worked as a civil rights advocate and Washington state senator prior to running for Congress. She won with the support from 136,547 Seattle voters compared to opponent, fellow Democrat Brady Pinero Walkinshaw’s 102,341 votes.

Elsewhere in Washington state, voters have elected their respective incumbents to continue to represent them in Congress. Here’s a look at the margins.

  • CD 1 – Suzan Delbene (D) with 57.19% of votes
  • CD 2 – Rick Larsen (D) with 65.15% of votes
  • CD 3 – Jaime Herrera Beutler (R) with 58.83% of votes
  • CD 4 – Dan Newhouse (R) with 57.84% of votes
  • CD 5 – Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R) with 58.32% of votes
  • CD 6 – Derek Kilmer (D) with 62.25% of votes
  • CD 7 – Pramila Jayapal (D) with 57.16% of votes
  • CD 8 – Dave Reichert (D) with 58.38% of votes
  • CD 9 – Adam Smith (D) with 74.33% of votes
  • CD 10 – Denny Heck (D) with 59.53% of votes

What We’re Reading This Week, October 17-21

The End of Political Correctness on Campus – Trump says he’ll end it, but can he? More from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Debate: Five Takeaways – The tilt in Las Vegas had a little something for everyone: sharp personal attacks, substantive policy discussion and Trump’s unmatched ability to provoke controversy. More from The Hill

Nasty Woman: The Coolest Thing Hillary’s Ever Been Called – Within an hour of the debate about a quarter of a million tweets mentioned “nasty woman,” a vast number of them from women proudly declaring themselves nasty women too or, as one woman on Twitter put it, reclaiming their nastiness. More on The Washington Post

Growing Racial Disparities in Student Debt – Graduate enrollment is a worthwhile investment, the study finds, but comes with more financial risk for African-American students both because of their concentration in the for-profit sector and because of lower rates of graduation. More from Inside Higher Ed.

When Colleges Focus On Mastery – Scrap the lecture halls, final exams, degree plans, and traditional semesters. In a growing segment of higher education, students can enroll in a personalized online degree program that allows them to move through lessons as quickly as they can demonstrate mastery of the material. More from The Atlantic

Report: Biden’s Cancer Moonshot – By leveraging decades of scientific understanding from the study and care of cancer, creating and aggregating immensely powerful datasets, and developing unprecedented science and technological capabilities, we as a Nation are positioned to end cancer as we know it. More on the Moonshot effort.

Obama Tells Trump: Stop ‘Whining’  – President Obama ridiculed Donald J. Trump on Tuesday for saying that the presidential election was rigged against him. More from the New York Times.

Winning the Internet this Week: #TrumpBookReport  – People are tweeting Donald Trump’s take on old classics, and it’s wonderful. More from Buzzfeed.

 

 

 

Trump Picks a Running Mate

Donald Trump has picked Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate, turning to a well-established conservative who brings government experience to the Republican presidential ticket. Gov, Pence is a 57-year-old former radio host and congressman as well as a well-known social conservative and could soothe right-leaning voters who are skeptical of Mr. Trump’s views on social issues.

White House Threatens to Veto House Defense Measure

This week President Obama threatened to veto to House version of the annual defense appropriations legislation in a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP). Issued by the Office of Management and Budget, the SAP disapproves of the shifting of  $16 billion in war funds to the Pentagon’s base budget, funding overseas contingencies only through next April.

The maneuver funds additional procurement, a higher pay raise and more active-duty troops in the Army and Marine Corps, but the administration called the approach dangerous. According to Politico, the White House said: “By gambling with warfighting funds, the bill risks the safety of our men and women fighting to keep America safe, undercuts stable planning and efficient use of taxpayer dollars, dispirits troops and their families, baffles our allies, and emboldens our enemies.”

 

Super Tuesday!

Today voters in twelve states – 11 Democratic and 11 Republican – will gather together to nominate their party’s candidate for President of the United States.

On the Democratic side, Super Tuesday could be Hillary Clinton’s opportunity to pull away from Bernie Sanders. There are 889 delegates up for grabs in eleven states – Alabama (53), Arkansas (32), Colorado (66), Georgia (102), Massachusetts (91), Minnesota (77), Oklahoma (38), Tennessee (67), Texas (252), Vermont (16), Virginia (95). With Clinton poised to win Texas, Arkansas, Virginia, and Tennessee, Sanders is pushing for wins in northern states. Massachusetts is an important state to watch, as polling shows that Clinton’s lead there is within the margin of error.

Breaking down the Democratic Super Tuesday Map (via Politico)

Support for Donald Trump has grown in many Super Tuesday states, leading pundits to conjecture that a Trump sweep today will cripple all other Republican candidates. Around 600 Republican delegates are up for grabs in Alabama (50), Alaska (28), Arkansas (40), Georgia (76), Massachusetts (42), Minnesota (38), Oklahoma (43), Tennessee (58), Texas (155), Vermont (16), Virginia (49), and Wyoming (29). As Trump hedges closer and closer to the nomination, the Republican establishment is showing signs of panic. Some fear Trump cannot win in November, others fear he would not govern conservatively. Texas is one state that Trump may lose today, and it is a must win for Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas native who holds the lead in the polls.

Breaking down the GOP’s Super Tuesday Map (via Politico)