[FONT="]Even better, Mr Trump gets the bogeywoman he wanted. Nancy Pelosi may well return to her position as Speaker of the House, elevating a woman hated by conservatives and viewed by Republicans as one of their biggest assets. (Even many
Democrats see her as toxic and some candidates distanced themselves from her in tight races.)
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[FONT="]Like all populists, Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign was defined by what he ran against – the elites, politicians, the swamp, globalism, Hillary Clinton. He now gets a fresh set of enemies and a chance to return to a successful playbook.
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[FONT="]It will still be difficult for Mr Trump to win in 2020. The Democrats are starting to find their mojo – even if they haven’t yet found a viable 2020 candidate. All the signs are that their healthcare message connected with voters and that their strategy of running a national campaign against Mr Trump, while giving their candidates latitude to run on local issues, allowed them to disguise the gaping void at the top of the party.
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[FONT="]Yet the night’s mixed results for Republicans offer a clear conclusion for Mr Trump: populism pays. And if you thought the first two years of his presidency marked a descent into the ugliest of partisan politics, then I fear we’ve only just got started.[/FONT]
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