At the beginning of 2026, the Toteboard suggested that while democrats were staring down the barrel of an unfavorable senate map, there was nevertheless “a grain of historical precedent to allow for a small degree of hopefulness.” Now, eight months, three Toteboard updates, and one really stupid war later, does it look like that hope is actually going to come to fruition?

The midterm elections are just under four months away, and the Toteboard doesn’t really need to remind anyone just how much is at stake this time around. Trump has systemically assaulted American democracy, instilled a fascistic climate of fear and hostility, and pretty much fucked up most of the world, aided and abetted by a co-conspiratorial republican party and a malevolent wink-and-nod SCOTUS. It is critical – absolutely critical – that the voters construct at least some

The midterms are beginning to look eerily like they did two decades ago, right down to the vulnerable New England moderate and the dull midwestern interloper.

To say this is going to be an uphill battle is a gross understatement, but there is a grain of historical precedent to allow for a small degree of hopefulness.