So Federal candidate filing has finished in all 50 states and we are part way through the primary season.
Democratic enthusiasm has been sky rocketing (as much discussed at DKE) at both State and Federal levels.
But just how many districts did Democrats file to run in of the 435 US House of Representatives Districts this year and how does that compare with previous years???????
In modern times the high water mark for Democratic recruitment was of course in the wave years of 2006 and 2008.
In 2008 Democrats ran in an impressive 421 Districts.
But two years earlier Democrats ran in 425 Districts, a fantastic effort indeed.
2018 however puts those efforts into the shade. This year no less than 433 House districts had Democratic candidates file to run. This is no less than stupendous!
I suspect it has been decades since there were so many Democrats running in so many Districts.
The only two Districts where Republicans got a free pass are GA-08 and NC-03 both of which have a double digit Cook PVI. By the way 3 Democrats filed to run in CA-08 but none made it out of the top two primary that California runs, an electoral process that is a blot on democracy in my not so humble opinion.
So onto November we barrel with Democrats running in more US House Districts than we have in many years.