Election Day

The midterm elections were today.  As Brett, Cal, my parents and I had all voted via absentee ballot during the month of October, we were more than ready for this day to come.  Doug did make it to the polls when they opened at 6 a.m. this morning.  Normally, my parents would be there to greet him, but they decided to take a break from election work as it made that day too long.

Doug's name was on the ballot again for county council.  He was running unopposed, so we weren't too nervous for him.  It was nice to see all of the votes that he did get.  The local race that surprised us the most was Wawasee's school board.  For years we have been hearing that the administration and others in the community wanted to replace Mrs. Dixon.  There were two well known locals running against her, but it did not matter.  She still won.  The margin was small, only 126 votes, but she got enough to propel her into her fifth term.

Indiana's Senate race made national news tonight.  The long standing Democrat Joe Donnelly was up for reelection against a newcomer and Trump supporter, Mike Braun.  It was said to be a close race that few newscasters believed Braun would win.  In their words they felt that Donnelly's win would show Trump that the Republicans were on a downslide.   Brett had told me a week ago that he felt Braun would win.  I was skeptical as Donnelly has a huge following in Indiana, but I knew that Brett's predictions were usually correct so I believed him.  In the end Brett was not only correct about Braun, but also in regards to the Republican Senate winner in Florida.  In fact by the end of the evening the Republicans had lost the House, but had actually gained seats in the Senate just as Brett had predicted.  As most television analysts believed that the Republicans would lose the Senate as well, tonight was actually an overall victory for Trump and the Republican Party.  For me personally, I was glad that Brett had outsmarted the majority of political analysts, but more importantly I was thrilled that the political ad season would come to an end.