{"id":6385,"date":"2026-03-26T03:39:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T09:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/?p=6385"},"modified":"2026-03-28T00:06:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T06:06:26","slug":"special-elections-national-mood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/archives\/6385","title":{"rendered":"Special Elections \/ National Mood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ex1\">\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial; font-size:20px ;\"><em>If you reached this Balkingpoints article by direct external link, stop by the front page for a <a href=\"http:\/\/Balkingpoints.com\"  target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>rotating satellite view<\/strong><\/a> of the earth at night<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/div.png\"\/><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/platform-api.sharethis.com\/js\/sharethis.js#property=6005a7edc6ae2f001213eb1d&amp;product=inline-share-buttons\" async=\"async\"><\/script>\n<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\np{font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; color: black;}<br \/>\n<\/style>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/FL.jpg\" alt=\"per MS Now\" \/><br \/>\n<\/br>source: MS Now \/ March 25, 2026<\/center><\/p>\n<p><\/br><\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">\nThese are just snapshots yet they tell a definitive story, about the unpopularity of Donald Trump. The latest are from this week, 2 Florida Legislature special elections. Trump carried these districts in 2024 by 9 and 11 points. They both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/news\/florida-democrats-flipped-two-legislative-seats-in-2026-special-election\/\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">flipped blue on Tuesday<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">\nIf Republicans were seen opposing his nonsense &#038; chaos act, it might be different. Instead they are in lock step, allowing it to stand and independents aren&#8217;t having it. That&#8217;s how you win a district you lost decisively 2 years ago. Those voters have &#038; are, shifting.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">\nGOP&#8217;s have just 7 months to turn this around before facing voters in the 2026 midterms. This <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/5800199-florida-democratic-election-wins-takeaways\/\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">article link<\/a> &#8211; from a right wing publication no less &#8211; goes into some further detail about the trend.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">\nThis on the heels of the <a href=\"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/archives\/6276\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VA and NJ governor elections<\/a> last November, in which the Republican also fared poorly. Independents had <a href=\"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/archives\/6300\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">left the tent by year&#8217;s end<\/a>, then Trump sent thousands of ICE agents to Minneapolis in what looked nothing short of a military occupation. It&#8217;s a US city and <em>no president does that<\/em>. 2 Americans were killed while exercising their civil right of dissent.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">\nCorporate-owned major media outlets typed up the <a href=\"https:\/\/19thnews.org\/2026\/01\/child-care-fraud-minnesota-fact-check\/\"  rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stated justification<\/a> &#8211; &#8220;child care fraud&#8221;. Sign up to enforce immigration laws apparently, and get turned into the fraud police&#8230;\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">\nThe point is that if you think swing voters \/ independents are hunky dory with that, you badly misread them. Now a military assault on Iran out of nowhere, lives lost as a result, and gasoline skyrocketing.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"ex1\">\nJust 7 months, Republicans. What might be the plan from here&#8230;\n<\/p>\n<p><code><\/code><\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.online\/@Balkingpoints\" >Roy@Balkingpoints<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/div.png\"\/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"font-family: arial; font-size:18px ;\">Published 2026 \/ all rights reserved<\/span><\/center><\/p>\n<p><code><\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you reached this Balkingpoints article by direct external link, stop by the front page for a rotating satellite view of the earth at night source: MS Now \/ March 25, 2026 These are just snapshots yet they tell a definitive story, about the unpopularity of Donald Trump. The latest are from this week, 2 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":574,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/574"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6385"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6399,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6385\/revisions\/6399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balkingpoints.com\/balk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}