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This summer the blue wave became the talk of the nation’s political class, but now many Democrats are tempering that optimism and are just hoping to squeak away with the bare minimum 23 seats they need to recapture the House.
The energy seems to have shifted in part because of the bruising battle over now-Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, which appears to have revved up the conservative base at just the right moment. President Trump is helping keep that energy alive by going into full campaign mode, where he’s lobbing red meat to his base in key states. While the president may be lying about things like there being riots over sanctuary cities in California (there are no riots, people!) or a new tax plan (there’s no new tax plan, folks!), his base doesn’t seem to care and looks to be heeding his call to counter what may now just be a blue ripple coming towards the swamp.