The Progressive Midwesterner

One of the most high-profile victories for the Democratic Party in this year's midterm elections was Sharice Davids's election to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 3rd Congressional District of Kansas, which includes much of the Kansas portion of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Davids became the first Democrat to win election to either house of Congress as a Democrat since 2008, and Davids became one of the first two Native American women to be elected to either house of Congress from any state (Deb Haaland of New Mexico was the other Native American woman elected to the U.S. House in 2018). Now, Democrats in Kansas are flipping state legislative seats after the votes have been counted in this year's elections. That's because two state senators and one state representative have switched their party affiliation from Republican to Democratic in recent days. The two state senators who have defected to the Democrats are Dinah Sykes, who represents State Senate...

Most election analysts are already predicting that this year's midterm elections are likely to be a very strong election year for the Democratic Party nationally. One region of the country that could amplify an already-likely "blue wave" of Democratic electoral victories is the Inland Midwest, a six state region consisting of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The Inland Midwest region gets its name because all six states are Midwestern states, but none of the six states have a shoreline along any of the Great Lakes. The Inland Midwest is a very Republican-leaning region of the country, as Donald Trump received slightly over 56% of the vote in last year's presidential election in the six-state region . However, at least one statewide race in each of the six states in the Inland Midwest are competitive (including all three U.S. Senate races in the region), and several U.S. House seats in the region are competitive as well. As much of th...