Vox: “When 2009 began, the Republican Party looked like a smoking pile of rubble. The GOP had lost the presidency, and much of their outgoing president’s legacy seemed set to be reversed. They had fallen into the minority in both houses of Congress. And in the states, they held less than half of governorships and only about a quarter of state legislatures.”

“The party has since, of course, made a remarkable comeback. But that comeback didn’t unfold entirely in 2016. The seeds for it were sown all the way back in 2010 with the first midterm elections of Barack Obama’s presidency.”

“Senate Democrats are starting the 2018 election cycle $20 million in debt, which will likely make it even more difficult for them to retake the Senate in two years,” the Washington Examiner reports.

Stuart Rothenberg: “By any measure, Democrats are on the defensive in the next fight for Senate control. A three-seat Democratic midterm gain, which would give the party a majority, looks virtually impossible given the seats up this cycle.”

“A net change of eight seats would be large by historical standards but not unprecedented. Swings of at least eight Senate seats have occurred in four of the last 17 midterm elections – 1958, 1986, 1994 and 2014 – and in six of the last 34 elections (going back to 1950).”

“The problem for Republicans is that these big Senate swings have always happened against the sitting president’s party. The sole exception, since the direct election of senators, occurred in 1934, when President Franklin Roosevelt’s party gained ten Senate seats. Two years earlier, when Roosevelt won a landslide presidential victory, his party gained a dozen Senate seats.”

Cook Political Report: “The 38 Governors races on the ballot in 2017 and 2018 may end up being the biggest story of the cycle. There is a lot at stake for both parties as most of the Governors elected this cycle will be in office in 2021 when the next round of redistricting takes place. Thus, there is no time like the present to unveil the first iteration of gubernatorial ratings of the cycle.”

“In 2018, Republicans have 26 seats up, at least 16 of which will be open largely due to term limits… Democrats have just nine seats up in 2018, including three that will be open.”

Charlie Cook: “In just a few weeks Demo­crats have gone from driv­ing for what figured to be an easy lay up to hav­ing the rest of the sea­son can­celled, with the next sea­son in real doubt. They seemed to have the pres­id­ency in hand, a ma­jor­ity in the Sen­ate very likely, and, while win­ning a ma­jor­ity in the House was al­ways un­real­ist­ic, they did seem to have a good chance to cut the GOP ma­jor­ity in half with a gain of between 10 and 20 seats. In­stead they al­lowed the White House to slip from their grasp, gained just two Sen­ate seats, leav­ing them in the minor­ity, and gained only a half dozen seats in the House, be­low the bot­tom end of what thought pos­sible.”

“It only gets worse. Demo­crats would need a three-seat net gain in the to se­cure a Sen­ate ma­jor­ity in 2018, a tall or­der since they’ll be de­fend­ing 25 seats and Re­pub­lic­ans just eight. Of the eight Re­pub­lic­an seats up in 2018, just one, that of fresh­man Sen. Dean Heller in Nevada, is in a state that went for Demo­crats in either the 2012 or 2016 pres­id­en­tial elec­tions (it voted Demo­crat­ic in both). No oth­er GOP-held Sen­ate seat ap­pears to be even re­motely in danger.”

“Con­versely, Demo­crats are de­fend­ing some states that have been pretty rough on them in the past.”

“Shell-shocked Democrats looking to recover from 2016 see the large slate of upcoming governor’s races as their most likely path out of the political wilderness — starting in the Midwest,” Politico reports.

“Twenty-seven of the 38 governorships up in 2017 and 2018 are Republican-held, including many seats that will be open after eight years of GOP control. That means widespread opportunities for Democratic gains, as well as a critical chance for new ideas and new blood to emerge as the party seeks to identify its next generation of leaders and dig out from a low point after President-elect Donald Trump’s shocking White House win.”

“The sweeping gubernatorial map takes in virtually every national battleground state and segment of the electorate.”

The Washington Post reports many women “are responding to Hillary Clinton’s defeat with a new sense of obligation to seek political power. After years of never imagining a career in the public eye or only vaguely entertaining the idea of working in politics, these women are determined to run for elected office.”

“They don’t speak for all women, many of whom voted for Trump — 42 percent of them, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research. Notably, a majority of white women favored the Republican. But Clinton still benefited from an overall gender gap, and young women supported her by a margin of 32 percentage points.”