Thom Hartmann Blames Jill Stein for Donald Trump’s 2016 Win, But Ignores Evidence of Exit Polls

Posted on by December 31, 2025
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Thom Hartmann, a well-known host of a radio show about politics, and editor of The Hartmann Report, a daily newsletter about politics, said on December 30 that Donald Trump only won the presidency in 2016 because of Jill Stein’s Green Party candidacy.  He said, “Stein had no such moral compunction with her Green Party candidacy in 2016.  Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin provided Trump’s margin of victory in the Electoral College over Hillary Clinton that year, and, in each of the states, Stein polled more votes than Trump’s margin.”

Hartmann appears not to know about the 2016 exit polls, even though they have been widely reported.  The New York Times mentioned them in a 2023 article about Cornel West, and there are many other media mentions from late in 2016.  The exit pollsters asked Stein Voters whom they would have voted for if only Trump and Clinton had been on the ballot.  25% said they would have voted for Hillary Clinton, but 14% said they would have voted for Donald Trump.  Therefore, when one does the arithmetic, one finds that Stein voters did not change the electoral vote outcome in any state.

Maine Democratic and Republican Parties Don’t Want Their Member-Candidates to be Able to Get Primary Ballot Signatures from Independent Voters

Posted on by December 31, 2025
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a law passed in Maine  this year says each party decides for itself whether to let independent voters sign primary petitions for its own members.  A party that wants its candidates to be able to get signatures from independent voters must tell the Secretary of State by December 31 of the year before the election.

With only a few hours before the deadline, neither the Democratic nor Republican Parties has filed the form.  Unless there is a last minute filing, it appears the two major parties don’t want to let their candidates collect signatures from independent voters.

The other two qualified parties, Green and Libertarian, already filed the form earlier this month.  They do want their candidates to be free to get signatures from independent voters.

Arkansas Democratic Candidate Sues for a Place on the Primary Ballot

Posted on by December 31, 2025
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On December 30, Garland Trice, a Democrat who wants to run for Justice of the Peace in Jefferson County, Arkansas, filed a lawsuit in state court to get on the primary ballot.  The deadline in Arkansas for 2026 for primary candidates was noon on November 11, 2025.  Trice was in the election office at 11:35 a.m. that day.  Partisan primary candidates first file with their party, and then complete filing with the county elections office.  The county says he entered the latter office at 12:02 pm, and refused to acknowledge that he had met the deadline.  He says he entered at 11:59 am and no one was at the counter to date-stamp his paperwork.

See this story.  Arkansas has the 2nd earliest primary filing deadline of any state for 2026.  Only Illinois has an earlier deadline for primary candidates.  Arkansas, Illinois, North Carolina and Texas have March 3, 2026 primary dates.

Iowa Special Legislative Election

Posted on by December 30, 2025
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Iowa held a special election on December 30 to fill the vacancy in the State Senate, 16th district. The district is centered in Des Moines.

The results: Democratic 71.5%; Republican 28.5%.

When this district had last voted, in November 2024, the only two candidates had been a Democrat and a Libertarian. In that election, the Democrat got 70.1% and the Libertarian got 29.9%. So, the Republican in the current election got a slightly lower percentage than the Libertarian in the last regular election for this seat.