Bad News for Dems as Blue Wave Bombed in NC Special Elections w/ Key Wins by Republicans

Dems were all set to make this a referendum on Trump. If so, the outcome is a huge win for Trump!

Dems were hoping for a big upset Tuesday night in two special congressional elections in North Carolina. They pulled out all the stops and overspent the Republican challenger in the key NC-9 race by more than 2 to 1. Had they won it would have been declared a repudiation of Trump and an ominous sign for 2020. But Republicans won both seats. Dem talking points declaring the end of Trump were sent to the recycle bin. If anything, the vote this week reaffirmed Trump's power to reach the people after a huge rally in North Carolina on Monday.

What's really interesting here is that the swing in 2018 which left the NC-9 seat with a margin of less than 1,000 votes swung back to a much larger victory for the GOP candidate. The only silver lining for Dems is that they still outpolled their usual strength in a district Trump won by double digits. But if you extrapolate the result here to those 3 dozen other close House races that Dems won in 2018, it's very bad news for them as they try to hold control of the House in 2020.