Rick Bannister

CEO & Founder of neighborhood bridges Retired announcer for Ohio State University Softball, Women's Soccer, Baseball, and Women’s Ice Hockey

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

Dream Ending...it sure was!!! @SouthBasketball @SouthWildcats @WSHSStudentSec @BlackiePreps https://t.co/SwHOfGfUu1

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

Buckeyes are RAKING today...
@OhioStateSB

[Ohio State Softball @OhioStateSB]

It’s official‼️

Welcome to the squad, Azarriah!

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

North Carolina ☑️
South Carolina ☑️
Georgia ☑️
MISSISSIPPI........................☑️
Texas ☑️

[CNN @CNN]

Scott Colom will defeat Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in a major upset to become the first Democrat that voters in deep-red Mississippi have elected to the chamber in more than four decades, CNN projects. https://t.co/LIrSavsJ01

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@GeraldoRivera And if it happens today it will be the @GOP who will let it happen. Just to be clear.

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@HeikeSpecht More accurately, it was black and Latino women!

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

Undefeated

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

Using pronouns may have helped this Dana White situation.

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@Ojeda4America Look at the joy and pride on your dad's face. I'm so happy for both of you that he received this news. #FullHeart

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@uspolitics1111 THIS!
The American media will be studied for the next 100 years about how they try (and are still trying) to apply logic and decorum to the crazy and unlawful antics of @realDonaldTrump

Friends -- effective earlier this week -- Americans have left the chat.

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@MalloryMcMorrow 🔥🔥🔥

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@SpencerHakimian Do you need us to bring cash to closing?

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@baseballcrank Who are “these people”? 👎

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@ananavarro Elon

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@PpollingNumbers The only person either of these 🤡 could beat is @VivekGRamaswamy

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

Undefeated

[Mr. Make It Happen @SupportThaNawf]

We have to say “Mississippi” after each number

[Seema Jilani @SeemaJilani]

Amy Acton letting Vivek Ramaswamy go to voicemail is a lesson for women. You don’t owe people who mistreat you reconciliations, forgiveness or platitudes. You certainly don’t owe people who enable your abuser anything. You owe yourself peace. 🥺

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

A note to all @Canada !!

Most of us have ALWAYS loved you. Thanks for your patience and support.

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@SarahAMatthews1 Right! The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference.

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

9 out of 10 voters mentioned the high cost of living AND rampant government corruption as their biggest concerns about your administration. In our democracy, voters have never identified government corruption as a top concern. This is the end of your public service @JDVance

[JD Vance @JDVance]

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up.

So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us."

Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.

There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true.

But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.

Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:

1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel

Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.)

In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.

The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.

If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest.

But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.

I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@JoJoFromJerz First 30 days!!! LFG!!!

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@Michellebbz You got your ass whipped by an ACTUAL Christian who is in Seminary. When you run corrupt and bad people, Americans are going to continue to say NO.

[Rick Bannister @rbanny]

@tn_sanatani @grok The real flex is that the Democrats will have 257 seats in the House of Representatives -- the largest majority for either party since 2008