Every month that has passed since about March of 2020 has felt like the longest month in human history, and these latest have been no exception. The midterms were just 42 days ago. Trump announced his 2024 campaign 34 days ago. The Georgia runoffs just 14 days in the rearview mirror. Elon’s Twitter purge started and ended just a few days back.
Early on in the pandemic, I found that Friday night dinners with my family were an integral part of keeping myself grounded temporally. Something about the regularity and the separation made those Shabbat meals an effective milestone. They offered me a moment to pause, take stock, and say: “We did it.” It may not have felt like it, but we made it through another week.
I hope that you also find ways to mark the passage of even those small increments of time.
As we head into 2023, and eventually the 2024 cycle, I’ll be spinning up this newsletter a bit more (how much more depends on a number of factors, chief among them the health of Twitter).
For now, I’ll be using it to highlight my recent work, as well as stories from others I think are worth reading. I hope you’ll find it useful — and that you recommend subscribing to your friends.
Here’s what I’ve been up to:
Just how close did Democrats come to keeping the House? By at least one metric, this was the closest House result in over a decade. For Inside Elections, I took stock of the closest races of 2022. Thank you to the Washington Post and New York Magazine for featuring my work on that.
How did a local Republican town councilman pull off the upset of the cycle to win a Long Island District that would have voted for Biden by 14.5 points in 2020? I dove deep on the four ingredients to a GOP upset in New York’s 4th District, including some previously unreleased polling.
It’s old news now, but Inside Elections was the first ratings firm to shift the Georgia Senate runoff from a Toss-up to the Democratic column. Read all about why I made that move.
What I’m reading:
The New York Times has a thorough investigation into the shady background of a GOP member-elect from Long Island: George Santos, whose entire biography may have been a fabrication. How does someone like that get elected to Congress? It helps when your party’s gubernatorial nominee is romping to a 15-point victory in the district at the top of the ticket even as Trump lost the seat handily in 2020.
Jill Lepore profiles spy writer Mick Herron for the New Yorker and it is a delight. I began Herrons books a few years ago and they are truly top tier. Funny, taut, and apt to kill off main characters with little notice, so they keep you on your toes.
For a Jewish kid whose first iTunes purchase was a Kanye album (using some Bar Mitzvah money, natch), this Rolling Stone article was a really tough read.
Jamelle Bouie on why “‘Andor’ is easily one of the best Star Wars projects to come to the screen since the conclusion of the original trilogy in 1983.” Seriously, watch “Andor.”