“State Sen. Jason Esteves might not yet be a household name in Georgia politics, but you could be hearing plenty more about him over the next year.
The Atlanta Democrat is taking steps to prepare a campaign for governor in 2026. He’s lined up advisers, consulted with senior Democrats and set up meetings with activists and donors about a potential bid.
Esteves is staying mum for now about his plans, but his discussions are such an open secret that we regularly get calls about them. Even some Republicans are in the know.
“He is far and away the most electable of the potential Democratic candidates who have been mentioned,” said Jay Morgan, a former Georgia GOP executive director and well-connected lobbyist who has been briefed on the Democrat’s plans.
He said Esteves has all the positive attributes that made two-time gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams a national figure but “without the guile.”
Esteves won his Georgia Senate seat in 2022 after spending nine years on the board of education of Atlanta Public Schools, including as chair from 2018-2021. He’s a steadfast supporter of abortion rights and Medicaid expansion and has become a go-to expert in the chamber on education measures.
He could be a wild card in an unsettled field to succeed Gov. Brian Kemp. While the Republican race seems likely to revolve around a matchup between Attorney General Chris Carr and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Democrats are far more uncertain.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and ex-DeKalb chief executive Michael Thurmond are kicking the tires on a run. U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, could also jump in, and Abrams hasn’t ruled out a third shot.
Expect Esteves to work to raise his profile.
Today, he plans to renew his calls to update the state’s decades-old school funding formula and push back on President Donald Trump’s vow to eliminate the federal Department of Education.
So, this is deep in blue territory so it doesn't matter that much - though it is a county of 1 million, but I just heard the first few seconds of Ken Jenkins' victory speech. Literally, the first sentence was about how "diversity is our strength". He could have said something about fighting for the poor of the county, or making government "work for everybody", or continuing to keep taxes under control, or almost anything. Diversity is one of our strengths, but the voters don't want to hear about it.
If it matches how he ran his campaign, it looks like the voters had no problem with him. (That said, for many areas in the country the messages you prefer would definitely work better.)
I don't think Dems made much of an active defense of diversity initiatives in the last election. At least not one that percolated to the surface. Now that Trump is using "DEI" as an excuse to a wrecking ball to the federal government and issue orders that greatly exceed his constitutional authority, I expect to see more pushback.
It's one of these things where there were some initiatives that definitely were counterproductive or excessive, like trainings that studies showed actually made workplace bias worse, or requiring a "diversity statement" to get an academic job. So Dems didn't want to be seen as defending these initiatives, so they just kept their mouths shut, which let Trump define DEI however he wanted. If there has been more of a pushback earlier, maybe we wouldn't be in this position.
Would be amazing to see Senator Andy Beshear sworn into office in January 2027. Would love to see him again beat the forced-birther, Daniel Cameron. Would Barr be easier to beat than Cameron? Perhaps there is time for today’s extreme Republican brand to weaken, even in Kentucky, before the 2026 elections.
Not likely to happen. Beshear is committed to completing his term, and hopefully to helping whichever Democrat gets the nomination in 2027. From my perspective, who succeeds Beshear is somewhat more important than who succeeds McConnell or Barr. Also, it's not exactly a secret that Beshear has an eye on 2028, even though he hasn't said anything yet. That's something I have no opinion about except that it would probably amount to entering the Veepstakes.
Nope. Cameron has found a race for higher office that he can win. Kentuckians are not going to elect a Democrat to the Senate except under a crazy circumstance like that one special election in Alabama.
McConnell has until January 9, 2026 to make a decision. I don't think he'll wait that long, but wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't announce anything until after filing opens on November 5. We may have a chance in KY-06 if Barr leaves it open, if we can recruit a good candidate, and if that candidate isn't hung out to dry Because Kentucky. Of course, that depends on Barr choosing to run for Senate. If he's hedging based on what McConnell decides, and potential candidates for his seat are hedging based on what he decides, His Mitchness may think that's just fine for now.
it's pretty obvious from his votes on cabinet nominees that he's retiring. He's not going to want to end the most successful Republican career in the Senate in history by losing a primary to a neo-nazi neanderthal
. "Let’s Buy California from Trump – Denmark’s Next Big Adventure"
Worth noting that the Danes have no interest in Texas, nor in Florida and Mar-al-Ego. But that California is deemed worthwhile. Perhaps because this Left Coast state’s values would better enable sensible cultural integration.
Here is the official website for DENMARKIFICATION:
There is also a petition to rename Disney World the "Hans Christian Andersen Park". That is just to show how stupid Republicans are with regards to Greenland.
Or Tivoli USA, after the Danish amusement park which was a prototype for most other such parks, including Walt Disney's creations. (If there can be Disneyland Paris, then why not?)
If there is any validity to Nancy Mace's disturbing accusations of sexual assault, she should make them out in the open, not just on the floor of the House, where the speech and debate clause protects her against any charge of defamation.
Yeah. Fuck Alan Wilson, but I understand why he’s pissed she’s using that venue to level a serious, serious accusation at him that seems to be partly in furtherance of her gubernatorial ambitions
For whatever it's worth to you, this Kentucky Democrat has no problems with Senate vacancies (which are very rare) being filled by special election without an interim appointment.
Just a few weeks ago in Canada, the Liberal Party/Parti libéral du Canada was in very dire straights to the point whether they would have to fight to be the Official Opposition. Now, with the replacing of PM Justin Trudeau to lead the party and Donald Trump’s bullying tactics threatening annexation that has galvanized almost all Canadians to fight for the Maple Leaf, the Liberals have a serious chance to form government (either a minority or majority).
Speaking of the Maple Leaf, three days until the 60th anniversary of Flag Day, when the Maple Leaf was moved to become THE central symbol of the Canadian flag. And to think that this iconic and very Canadian symbol nearly tore the nation apart.
I suspect that if they had put the matter to a vote, like New Zealand or Maine did, they would still have the Red Ensign rather than such a distinctive flag as they do now.
If the Liberal Party hadn't promised a new flag for Canada in the 1963 federal election, I would agree with that. Especially since both Ontario and Manitoba both put versions of the Red Ensign on their provincial flags after the flag change was made. This wasn't an out of the blue decision by then Prime Minister Lester Pearson. Ironically, THE biggest defender of the Red Ensign, former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker had ZERO British blood in him (he had in fact been called a "Hun" in an early campaign of his due to his German ancestry). "Dief the Chief" would be buried with the Red Ensign draping his coffin.
Passings: Ex-Rep. Beverly Byron (D-MD) died last weekend at 92. She represented MD-06 from 1978 to 1992, and was the last Democrat to do so when it was more clearly Western MD-based, before being redrawn to include more of Montgomery County. As such, she was a relatively conservative Democrat (the Almanac of American Politics once said "you could call her the northernmost Southern Democrat") who made an interesting contrast with Connie Morella, a liberal Republican from Montgomery who represented MD-08 from 1987 to 2002.
Byron was one of three Democratic husband-wife teams to represent MD-06, two of which were in the Byron family where the men were elected first, died in office, and their wives were elected to succeed them. There were William and Katherine Byron (1939-42), their son Goodloe and Beverly Byron (1971-92), and John and April Delaney (2013-18 and 2025 on, with David Trone in between.)
Ironically it was actually redistricting that doomed her tenure in Congress in 1992. The district lines were redrawn in 1991/92 for some more suburban, more socially liberal areas to be covered and made her subject to attacks for her somewhat conservative beliefs - especially on social issues (she was anti choice) - that she would not have been had her district remained the way it was. Despite the hard feelings of her losing her seat, she remained loyal to the Democratic Party and one of her granddaughters, Mollie Byron is a senior advisor to Governor Wes Moore (D-MD).
Such "suburban, socially liberal areas" must have been in Howard County, as the 1992 redistricting moved MD-06 entirely out of Montgomery County, and Howard was the only county partially included in it addition to the five (Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick, and Carroll) that were entirely in the district, all of which were then red.
Indeed they were. I lived in Ellicott City in Howard County from 2002 to 2007 and was technically in MD-6 with Roscoe Bartlett as my US Rep briefly. Thankfully it was redistricted to MD-7 with Elijah Cummings (may he rest in power), so I can proudly say he was my first AND second US House vote!
How does their 48-52 final approval rating work out mathematically? He's 89-11 republicans, 9-91 democrats, which would more or less cancel out to ~50-50 before we factor in independents. Who have him at 37-63. You'd expect something more like 45-55 or worse, with those numbers. They need to have some stark imbalance in party ID to have those numbers and still result in 48-52. We should expect some imbalance, but with those top line numbers you'd think they polled >40% of the sample as republican with independents and democrats splitting the remainder.
Another thing that jumped out at me, the support for issues based on how much people follow the news. People who follow the news "a lot" support an increase in deportations at 70%. "A little" drops all the way down to 26%. And "nothing at all" craters to 4% (!). Reducing the size of government goes 53% to 35% to 12%. Cabinet positions is 49% to 40% to 11%.
IMO that's a terrifying insight into how horrible the media environment is for us. Coverage with the news that people follow is causing people to support republicans more.
OK, with those numbers that got me to do the math. I made an excel sheet and with the exit poll ID I got 46-54 approval. With the other numbers you did I got 48-52.
I guess it isn't as excessively skewed as I first thought, but that second set of party ID is still unrepresentatively imbalanced I think.
The sample does seem to be a bit too red, so if he's underwater even with that it's a potentially good sign. I'm not buying that the 2024 exit polls are gospel that should be the standard for pollsters to weight to for at least the next couple of years.
Is there any timetable on when the North Carolina Supreme Court has to stop stalling and likely act unconstitutionally and against the most basic precepts of democracy to annul an election because they didn't like the results, so the decision can be appealed to the very uncertain fate of a federal court decision?
Georgia Democratic State Senator Jason Esteves preparing for a potential run for governor in 2026
https://www.ajc.com/politics/politically-georgia/jason-esteves-preparing-for-a-potential-run-for-governor-in-2026/QTDYNPH6UBBKXJBDYKDSVKC47Q/
“State Sen. Jason Esteves might not yet be a household name in Georgia politics, but you could be hearing plenty more about him over the next year.
The Atlanta Democrat is taking steps to prepare a campaign for governor in 2026. He’s lined up advisers, consulted with senior Democrats and set up meetings with activists and donors about a potential bid.
Esteves is staying mum for now about his plans, but his discussions are such an open secret that we regularly get calls about them. Even some Republicans are in the know.
“He is far and away the most electable of the potential Democratic candidates who have been mentioned,” said Jay Morgan, a former Georgia GOP executive director and well-connected lobbyist who has been briefed on the Democrat’s plans.
He said Esteves has all the positive attributes that made two-time gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams a national figure but “without the guile.”
Esteves won his Georgia Senate seat in 2022 after spending nine years on the board of education of Atlanta Public Schools, including as chair from 2018-2021. He’s a steadfast supporter of abortion rights and Medicaid expansion and has become a go-to expert in the chamber on education measures.
He could be a wild card in an unsettled field to succeed Gov. Brian Kemp. While the Republican race seems likely to revolve around a matchup between Attorney General Chris Carr and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Democrats are far more uncertain.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and ex-DeKalb chief executive Michael Thurmond are kicking the tires on a run. U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, could also jump in, and Abrams hasn’t ruled out a third shot.
Expect Esteves to work to raise his profile.
Today, he plans to renew his calls to update the state’s decades-old school funding formula and push back on President Donald Trump’s vow to eliminate the federal Department of Education.
So, this is deep in blue territory so it doesn't matter that much - though it is a county of 1 million, but I just heard the first few seconds of Ken Jenkins' victory speech. Literally, the first sentence was about how "diversity is our strength". He could have said something about fighting for the poor of the county, or making government "work for everybody", or continuing to keep taxes under control, or almost anything. Diversity is one of our strengths, but the voters don't want to hear about it.
If it matches how he ran his campaign, it looks like the voters had no problem with him. (That said, for many areas in the country the messages you prefer would definitely work better.)
What’s wrong with that.
I don't think Dems made much of an active defense of diversity initiatives in the last election. At least not one that percolated to the surface. Now that Trump is using "DEI" as an excuse to a wrecking ball to the federal government and issue orders that greatly exceed his constitutional authority, I expect to see more pushback.
It's one of these things where there were some initiatives that definitely were counterproductive or excessive, like trainings that studies showed actually made workplace bias worse, or requiring a "diversity statement" to get an academic job. So Dems didn't want to be seen as defending these initiatives, so they just kept their mouths shut, which let Trump define DEI however he wanted. If there has been more of a pushback earlier, maybe we wouldn't be in this position.
Would be amazing to see Senator Andy Beshear sworn into office in January 2027. Would love to see him again beat the forced-birther, Daniel Cameron. Would Barr be easier to beat than Cameron? Perhaps there is time for today’s extreme Republican brand to weaken, even in Kentucky, before the 2026 elections.
Not likely to happen. Beshear is committed to completing his term, and hopefully to helping whichever Democrat gets the nomination in 2027. From my perspective, who succeeds Beshear is somewhat more important than who succeeds McConnell or Barr. Also, it's not exactly a secret that Beshear has an eye on 2028, even though he hasn't said anything yet. That's something I have no opinion about except that it would probably amount to entering the Veepstakes.
Yeah, I think he’s going to run for president.
hope so!!
Nope. Cameron has found a race for higher office that he can win. Kentuckians are not going to elect a Democrat to the Senate except under a crazy circumstance like that one special election in Alabama.
please, don't hold your breath waiting for Sen Beshear!
McConnell has until January 9, 2026 to make a decision. I don't think he'll wait that long, but wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't announce anything until after filing opens on November 5. We may have a chance in KY-06 if Barr leaves it open, if we can recruit a good candidate, and if that candidate isn't hung out to dry Because Kentucky. Of course, that depends on Barr choosing to run for Senate. If he's hedging based on what McConnell decides, and potential candidates for his seat are hedging based on what he decides, His Mitchness may think that's just fine for now.
it's pretty obvious from his votes on cabinet nominees that he's retiring. He's not going to want to end the most successful Republican career in the Senate in history by losing a primary to a neo-nazi neanderthal
Over 200,000 Danes have signed the petition...
. "Let’s Buy California from Trump – Denmark’s Next Big Adventure"
Worth noting that the Danes have no interest in Texas, nor in Florida and Mar-al-Ego. But that California is deemed worthwhile. Perhaps because this Left Coast state’s values would better enable sensible cultural integration.
Here is the official website for DENMARKIFICATION:
https://denmarkification.com/
There is also a petition to rename Disney World the "Hans Christian Andersen Park". That is just to show how stupid Republicans are with regards to Greenland.
I probably shouldn’t repeat the joke Norwegians tell about Danes, who are constantly accused of swallowing their consonants:
"Danish is not a language – it’s a hereditary speech defect."
(Jests aside, Norwegians have a keen appreciation of their southern neighbors.)
Or Tivoli USA, after the Danish amusement park which was a prototype for most other such parks, including Walt Disney's creations. (If there can be Disneyland Paris, then why not?)
If there is any validity to Nancy Mace's disturbing accusations of sexual assault, she should make them out in the open, not just on the floor of the House, where the speech and debate clause protects her against any charge of defamation.
Yeah. Fuck Alan Wilson, but I understand why he’s pissed she’s using that venue to level a serious, serious accusation at him that seems to be partly in furtherance of her gubernatorial ambitions
As with any such assusations, due process should unfold as the evidence comes out.
So far, her ex-husband is denying the accusations and already is getting a legal team to address them.
For whatever it's worth to you, this Kentucky Democrat has no problems with Senate vacancies (which are very rare) being filled by special election without an interim appointment.
Just a few weeks ago in Canada, the Liberal Party/Parti libéral du Canada was in very dire straights to the point whether they would have to fight to be the Official Opposition. Now, with the replacing of PM Justin Trudeau to lead the party and Donald Trump’s bullying tactics threatening annexation that has galvanized almost all Canadians to fight for the Maple Leaf, the Liberals have a serious chance to form government (either a minority or majority).
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/11/canada-liberal-party-trump
Speaking of the Maple Leaf, three days until the 60th anniversary of Flag Day, when the Maple Leaf was moved to become THE central symbol of the Canadian flag. And to think that this iconic and very Canadian symbol nearly tore the nation apart.
I suspect that if they had put the matter to a vote, like New Zealand or Maine did, they would still have the Red Ensign rather than such a distinctive flag as they do now.
If the Liberal Party hadn't promised a new flag for Canada in the 1963 federal election, I would agree with that. Especially since both Ontario and Manitoba both put versions of the Red Ensign on their provincial flags after the flag change was made. This wasn't an out of the blue decision by then Prime Minister Lester Pearson. Ironically, THE biggest defender of the Red Ensign, former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker had ZERO British blood in him (he had in fact been called a "Hun" in an early campaign of his due to his German ancestry). "Dief the Chief" would be buried with the Red Ensign draping his coffin.
Hark a Vagrant's take on it is pretty good:
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=294
(Last comic on the page)
Passings: Ex-Rep. Beverly Byron (D-MD) died last weekend at 92. She represented MD-06 from 1978 to 1992, and was the last Democrat to do so when it was more clearly Western MD-based, before being redrawn to include more of Montgomery County. As such, she was a relatively conservative Democrat (the Almanac of American Politics once said "you could call her the northernmost Southern Democrat") who made an interesting contrast with Connie Morella, a liberal Republican from Montgomery who represented MD-08 from 1987 to 2002.
Byron was one of three Democratic husband-wife teams to represent MD-06, two of which were in the Byron family where the men were elected first, died in office, and their wives were elected to succeed them. There were William and Katherine Byron (1939-42), their son Goodloe and Beverly Byron (1971-92), and John and April Delaney (2013-18 and 2025 on, with David Trone in between.)
https://marylandmatters.org/2025/02/10/beverly-byron-former-md-congresswoman-dies-at-92/
Ironically it was actually redistricting that doomed her tenure in Congress in 1992. The district lines were redrawn in 1991/92 for some more suburban, more socially liberal areas to be covered and made her subject to attacks for her somewhat conservative beliefs - especially on social issues (she was anti choice) - that she would not have been had her district remained the way it was. Despite the hard feelings of her losing her seat, she remained loyal to the Democratic Party and one of her granddaughters, Mollie Byron is a senior advisor to Governor Wes Moore (D-MD).
Such "suburban, socially liberal areas" must have been in Howard County, as the 1992 redistricting moved MD-06 entirely out of Montgomery County, and Howard was the only county partially included in it addition to the five (Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick, and Carroll) that were entirely in the district, all of which were then red.
Indeed they were. I lived in Ellicott City in Howard County from 2002 to 2007 and was technically in MD-6 with Roscoe Bartlett as my US Rep briefly. Thankfully it was redistricted to MD-7 with Elijah Cummings (may he rest in power), so I can proudly say he was my first AND second US House vote!
New Marquette University national poll. Trump approval and favourability both somewhat underwater. Mixed opinions on policies.
https://law.marquette.edu/poll/2025/02/12/new-marquette-law-school-poll-national-survey-finds-public-strongly-favors-some-trump-policies-strongly-opposes-others/
How does their 48-52 final approval rating work out mathematically? He's 89-11 republicans, 9-91 democrats, which would more or less cancel out to ~50-50 before we factor in independents. Who have him at 37-63. You'd expect something more like 45-55 or worse, with those numbers. They need to have some stark imbalance in party ID to have those numbers and still result in 48-52. We should expect some imbalance, but with those top line numbers you'd think they polled >40% of the sample as republican with independents and democrats splitting the remainder.
Another thing that jumped out at me, the support for issues based on how much people follow the news. People who follow the news "a lot" support an increase in deportations at 70%. "A little" drops all the way down to 26%. And "nothing at all" craters to 4% (!). Reducing the size of government goes 53% to 35% to 12%. Cabinet positions is 49% to 40% to 11%.
IMO that's a terrifying insight into how horrible the media environment is for us. Coverage with the news that people follow is causing people to support republicans more.
If you plug in the split from the 2024 exit poll (31D-35R-34I) he'd be about -7. Something like 32D-38R-30I gets you to about -4.
OK, with those numbers that got me to do the math. I made an excel sheet and with the exit poll ID I got 46-54 approval. With the other numbers you did I got 48-52.
I guess it isn't as excessively skewed as I first thought, but that second set of party ID is still unrepresentatively imbalanced I think.
The sample does seem to be a bit too red, so if he's underwater even with that it's a potentially good sign. I'm not buying that the 2024 exit polls are gospel that should be the standard for pollsters to weight to for at least the next couple of years.
I wouldn't weight to party ID in any case, but the exit polls provide a decent quick and dirty reasonableness check.
The follow a news a lot probably skews to Trump cheerleaders right now as many liberals are less engaged with the news.
Is there any timetable on when the North Carolina Supreme Court has to stop stalling and likely act unconstitutionally and against the most basic precepts of democracy to annul an election because they didn't like the results, so the decision can be appealed to the very uncertain fate of a federal court decision?