FROM BRINK TO BREAKTHROUGH!

By Marlene Reiss, Scottsdale North Field Director

It’s that time of year to look back on 2025 and recap the good, the bad, and the ugly, the winners, and the losers of the past verrry long year, and then look ahead to 2026. But where to begin? At least until very recently, the winners clearly were the Trump crime family and its cabal of misfits and billioniares, and the losers were the rest of us.

Every time we thought we were at the bottom, the floor opened beneath our feet and down we tumbled with no bottom in sight. Then came November 4th and, of all people, along came Thomas Massie (KY), Marjorie Taylor Green (GA.), Nancy Mace (S.C.) and Lauren Boebert (CO) to stand with the Epstein survivors, demand the release of the files, and crack the protective shell of MAGA.

The gap is growing wider every day. The tide is turning and there is much to look forward to in 2026! The City of Miami just elected its first Democratic governor in thirty years... and it’s a woman for the first time in the City’s history. No one can predict the future, but we can be optimistic about it by all accounts. Who ever would have thought that Sleepy Creepy Don would be the best gift under the tree this Christmas?

No doubt reading the writing on the wall, over thirty (30!) Republican members of Congress have announced their resignation or early retirement, some to run for other elected offices but most just throwing in the towel like rats scurrying down the moorings of a sinking ship. The list is long (thank God), and these will be the vacancies to watch:

House district seats in: Alabama’s 1st (Moore); Arizona’s 1st and 5th (Schweikert, Biggs); Florida’s 19th (Donalds); Georgia’s 1st (Carter), 10th (Collins) and 14th (Greene); Iowa’s 2nd and 4th (Hinson, Feenstra); Kentucky’s 6th (Barr); Michigan’s 10th (James); Nebraska’s 2nd (Bacon); New York’s 21st (Stefanik); South Carolina’s 1st and 5th (Mace, Norman); South Dakota’s At-Large (Johnson); Tennessee’s 6th (Rose); Texas’s 8th (Lutrell), 10th (McCaul), 19th (Arrington), 21st (Roy), 22nd (Nehls); and 38th (Hunt); Washington’s 4th (Newhouse); and, Wisconsin’s 7th (Tiffany).

Senate seats in: Iowa (Ernst); Kentucky (McConnell); North Carolina (Tillis), Tennessee (Blackburn) and Alabama (Tuberville).

Because the current Republican margin is so narrow (the most narrowly divided House since the Great Depression almost a century ago), Dems need only a net gain of three (3) seats to gain control of the House. And, because Republicans hold only 220 seats at the moment, they can only afford to lose two seats in order to retain a 218 seat majority. Stay

tuned to special elections before the November mid-terms to fill vacancies created by

resignations and/or deaths. In the Senate, Dems need a net gain of four seats and

Republicans can only afford to lose two seats.

We don’t need a blue tsunami in ‘26 - a gentle wave will do. So, dare to dream! Happy Holidays and a Happy Blue Year to All!