DML Morning Briefing, Nov. 9

Today is November 9. Below are some of the stories grabbing headlines this morning. I hope you share this briefing as doing so will make you the smartest person in the room.

1.Democrat John Fetterman defeats Dr. Mehmet Oz, flips Pennsylvania Senate seat
FoxNews–Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman will defeat the Republican and former daytime TV host Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race, Fox News’ Decision Desk projects.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., announced he would not be seeking a third term in office, leaving the Republican-held seat open and vulnerable as one of the best pickup opportunities for the Democratic Party this fall.

Democrat Fetterman was the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania for 13 years before being sworn in as lieutenant governor in 2019. Fetterman suffered a stroke in May, causing clear auditory processing issues that evidently affected his speaking abilities in the months leading up to Nov. 8.

Ryan Lynch: To the state of Pennsylvania I am speechless this morning, that’s all I can say.

2.Meta laying off more than 11,000 employees
CNBC–Meta is laying off 13% of its staff, or more than 11,000 employees, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees Wednesday.

“Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,” Zuckerberg said in the letter. “I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.”

Shares of Meta were up 4% in premarket trading.

Ryan Lynch: Go woke go broke. When will facebook realize that once it stops its censoring of content and accounts that maybe its financial troubles would cease to exist. Or are they just so blinded by their ideologies.

3.Beto O’Rourke, Stacey Abrams razzed after repeated losses: ‘They’re amazing at setting Democrat money on fire’
FoxNews–Democrats Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams were mocked Tuesday night after their losses to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, respectively.

O’Rourke, the former congressman who became a media darling during his 2018 campaign to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., has now lost races for the Senate, presidency, and governorship all within the past four years. Abrams, who argued without evidence that her 2018 election loss to Kemp was illegitimate, was rejected by the voters of Georgia by a wider margin in the 2022 rematch.

O’Rourke and Abrams were dubbed “superstar losers” in The Atlantic last week for being “among the country’s best-known political figures” who “have become so well known not by winning big elections but by losing them.”

The pair were mercilessly razzed on Twitter when their races were called on Election Day.

Ryan Lynch: Keeping these two out of positions of power is a victory within itself. I do hope their political careers are over.

4.Fresh wave of Ukrainian refugees expected as Russia targets power ahead of winter
Reuters–Eastern European countries are preparing for a possible wave of Ukrainian refugees as Russia targets power and heating plants ahead of winter, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying about 4 million people are already without power.

Zelenskiy said 14 regions plus the capital Kyiv were without power and Ukraine’s electrical grid operator Ukrenergo said scheduled hourly power outages would affect the whole of the country on Wednesday.

Russian forces have targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missiles and drone strikes in the run up to winter, when mean temperatures typically drop to several degrees below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit), with lows of minus 20C.

Some 6.9 million people are believed displaced internally within Ukraine and east European countries such as Slovakia and Hungary are preparing for an influx in coming months.

Ryan Lynch: I think we will see an escalation in Ukraine during these next couple of months. Russia’s military is built around mobilized infantry and armor. Winter will harden the ground and clear vegetation providing the Russian military with quicker movement. Let’s hope a peaceful solution can be reached as soon as possible.

5. Georgia likely heading for a December runoff: Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock locked in nail-biting race – that could mean the Senate majority is not known for a MONTH
DailyMail–Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock holds less than a one-point lead over Republican ex-NFL star Herschel Walker in the key Senate race that will likely head to a runoff election in December that could decide which party takes the majority.

As of 2:20 a.m on Wednesday morning., with 97 percent of precincts reporting, Warnock was up by about 31,000 votes, leading Walker 49.4 to 48.6, on a night that Democrats across the country defied the odds and a GOP red wave failed to materialize.

Warnock had 1,922,548 votes to Walker’s 1,891,284.

If neither candidate breaches the 50 percent threshold, the race heads to a December 6 runoff, per Georgia’s election law. A third-party Libertarian will likely either candidate from cinching a majority.

With a number of races not yet called, the Senate is now split 48-48, and the fate of control in the upper chamber will come down to the wire in a small handful of states like Georgia. It’s possible the Senate’s control could not be known until after another excruciating month of campaigning.

Ryan Lynch: I’m not surprised that we aren’t going to know for weeks. With it currently split 48 to 48 we’re going to experience nail-biters.