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Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194

What Just Happened?

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Trial Balloon · Ep. 194: What Just Happened?

The Midterms Blew Open the 2028 Map

November 6, 2026 · 8:23 am ET · Leave a Comment

“Brutal red-state losses are raising alarm among Republicans about the 2028 presidential battlefield,” Politico reports.

“Democrats’ midterm blowout is upending the political calculus for future presidential campaigns… Republicans are stressing the ramifications of a major tranche of once-reliably Republican Electoral College votes being in jeopardy, while Democrats are weighing how much surprise wins on red turf should reshape their electoral strategy.”

Said former Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien: “Last night undoubtedly made the mechanics of winning in 2028 harder for Republicans.”

The newly-designed interactive Electoral Vote Map is updated with many more states in play than the last three presidential elections.

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2028 Campaign

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Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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The starting map is built from how each state has voted compared with the country as a whole, not from how a state voted on its own. The last two presidential elections, with 2024 counting more than 2020. Then we…

Updated Nov. 4, 2026

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