The massive tsunamis predicted by both Republicans and Democrats for the 2018 midterms petered out early with no giant waves of any hue crashing the shores of America.  As expected, the United States House of Representatives flipped to Democrats, with a few extra seats than needed, but the Senate went a deeper shade of red, entrenching their majority powers.

History repeated the typical shift in the balance of power.  In 36 out of 38 midterm elections held since the Civil War ground to a close, the sitting president’s party has lost seats in the House.

But what isn’t electorate business, as usual, is when the president’s party makes gains in the Senate.  After the 17th Amendment was adopted in 1913, authorizing the popular vote for the U.S. Senate, the president’s party has lost seats in 19 out of 26 elections.

Squeakers

As the midterm approached, The Donald, Vice President Mike Pence, former president Barack Obama, also-ran Hillary, and billionaire Oprah stumped across the country to sway the vote.

Trump saw hundreds of thousands of stalwart fans wherever he went – a mirror image of his 2016 campaign — but the House was lost.  Obama, Hillary, and Oprah basked in the adoration of hundreds of fans but lost vital Senate seats and governorships.

The uprising in Georgia over the flag-burning socialist candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, heavily campaigned by Obama, Hollywood types, and Oprah, failed to defeat Republican Brian Kemp.  But in true delusional Democrat style, Abrams refuses to concede, citing the need to wait for absentee votes to be counted.

The other squeaker of note is the downfall of Florida’s Tallahassee mayor, who wished to be governor, Andrew Gillum.  By an 80,000-vote difference, Gillum was summarily deposited into obscurity – for the time being – as Republican Ron DeSantis scratched and clawed his way to the highest office in the state.  At least Gillum had the good graces to concede.

Sinkers

Not unsurprisingly, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) was handed her pink slip.  Whether her 2012 election was a fluke or the electorate was incensed by the Project Veritas’ hidden show-and-tell undercover video, the Show Me State soundly rebuked their incumbent for Republican Josh Hawley – a solid six-point victory. 

And the other freak election of 2012 finally remedied was, of course, Republican Mike Braun handing Senator Joe Donnelly (D-IN) his loss in Indiana.  With 59% of precincts tallied and Braun with a cushy 10-point lead, Donnelly bowed out with a two-minute concession speech to his people.

So much for pollsters and their mouthpieces in the media calling the matchup “too close to call.”

Surprises

This is America.  Home to a quirky electorate, who, it appears, will stay loyal and faithful to the candidate of the choosing regardless of the hurdles and heartaches they face.  And these folks deliver surprise after surprise, dumbfounding the political elite with impunity.

The winner, hands-down, of Election 2018 Biggest Surprise is none other than Nevada’s 36^th Assembly District victor, Dennis Hof.

Hof, a brothel owner and reality TV star, who fashioned his political persona after President Donald Trump, defeated Democrat educator, Lesia Romanov.

Hof is also dead. Underground. Pushing up daisies.  The good news for his constituency is that a Republican will be appointed to fill the position.  How embarrassed is Romanov?  Beaten twice by a dead man who wrote “The Art of the Pimp” and starred in the HBO reality series, Cathouse?

Perhaps she will channel Hillary, and fade away into the woods, mumbling “At this point, what difference does it make?”