usernamesAreTricky

Musk spent $25 million on this race, and still lost to a blowout (~10%)

Musk spending $25 million and also reduces his grip on congressional Republicans

They have been worried about him funding challangers against them. If he can spend this kind of money and heavier time investment and still lose badly, that reduces a motivation to go along with him

Both appear to be happening in the specials lately

Higher comparative dem turnout and some degree of persuasion is likely

Can't directly tell because individual votes are anonymous, but you can tell what party a voter is registered with in some states.

Generally seeing higher turnout among registered dems and margins large enough to suggest that many independent and likely some Republicans are shifting their votes

Elon Musk does. He poured $12 million into it for a reason. He has cases before the Wisconsin court system for violations of Wisconsin law. They can carry those penalties out without Trump being able to pardon for them either (can only pardon for federal crimes)

This is for a state court, not a federal one

State courts make decisions about state laws and are enforced by state officals

*In deep red districts. Like R+33 red

Dems overperformed by like 20 points. They probably would have outperformed more if Republicans didn't notice the close polling and start pouring millions into the race

Yes, don't be complacent, but don't look at it strictly in a binary way

No senate business can take place because of this even though it's technically not a filibuster of a specific bill. The senate was suppose to open under normal operation at noon EST, but he's still speaking as of me writing this comment

Not that I forgive Schumer for what he did on the CR, but Schumer actually was on the floor helping Booker

Schumer along with many other dems have been asking super long winded questions to give Booker a break speaking for a few minutes

(Procedurally, you can take and answer questions without yielding your time on the floor)

If you want to get stuff through, no, but it you want to help him, then yes

Various Dems senators have been helping him by asking super long questions to give him a few minutes break from speaking

In any case, Republican senators leaving without being able to voting on nominees and other stuff is helpful

Not that I forgive Schumer for what he did on the CR, but Schumer actually was on the floor helping Booker

Schumer along with many other dems have been asking super long winded questions to give Booker a break speaking for a few minutes

(Procedurally, you can take and answer questions without yielding your time on the floor)

Mostly through taking a sledge hammer via executive branch right now

Which needs things like confirmation of appointees from the Senate

Plus in a broad sense they're also trying to codify some of their currently illegal actions. It's good to slow stuff like that down

The Senate is still not able to go about their normal business because of this. It was suppose to start going through their schedule at noon today