Democrats expect big wins. But 2026 could still have surprises in store

I've voted in every election since 1972. This year, for the first time, I have no idea whether my vote will be counted.

The first column I ever wrote about Donald Trump appeared in the Daily Beast, where I worked at the time, in the summer of 2015. As I recall, it was not long after Trump said of John McCain that he preferred heroes who weren't captured. I sized up the situation-a draft dodger making a breathtakingly ugly and arrogant statement about a man who spent nearly six years in brutal captivity-and applied what I knew about politics and wrote confidently that Trump would fade away, round about World Series time.