Tangletown, MN

There’s got to be a morning after.

We won what was winnable: the House. We did what we set out to do.

In Minnesota, we won MN-02 and MN-03 — both pickups from particularly invidious Republicans. We lost MN-08 up North. We still don't know about MN-01: this morning, Democrat Dan Feehan is down by 1400 votes but we’ll see. (I told our volunteers this might be the closest race in the country, and I was pretty close. That busload of volunteers on Saturday, many from UMN and Macalester and St. Olaf, looks pretty good right now.)

Trump remains strong. The forces of darkness retain terrible power. One of our two political parties is insane.

This is not the beginning of the end. Yet still…

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Drainage matters in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul, so every suburban house is on its own little hill. That’s a lot of uphill driveways to walk.

It snows in Minnesota. Who knew? Rain, wind and snow make canvassing less fun.

It’s not much fun anyway.

They do breakfast well here. I had the “If You Must,” which has a thick slice of house-cured bacon from the restaurant’s own farm, eggs, cornbread — but can she make corn muffins?! — and really superb potatoes.

Democrats need to think about new media. We’ve left it to the Republicans. We took back a share this time because we had dollars and no broadcast slots to buy. I think it matters.

Democrats need to think about the human cost of our dependence on canvassing.

I did not see a Republican canvasser — not one — on any of my shifts. I did not see a Republican door-hanger — not one — on any of my doors. Yet we won MN-02 by 4% and lost MN-01 (though not by much — we think by less than 0.5%.)