Yes, we all know about the increasing possibility of a blue wave election in November. But the number and nature of states that could get caught up in this wave is becoming the stuff of Democratic dreams. Just in the last 24 hours, we’ve had two remarkable examples: Donald Trump felt the need to campaign in South Carolina for Senator Darline Graham, marking his territory with malodorous comments referring to Graham’s Democratic opponent, Annie Andrews, as “Trannie Annie” (apparently taking quite literally his bizarre and bigoted claims that Democrats favor “transgender for everybody”). And then, the staid, cautious Cook Political Report political handicappers moved the Kansas U.S. Senate race into the “toss-up” category.

Let’s pause to reflect on the improbability of Senate races in Kansas and South Carolina becoming competitive. The Palmetto State was the original site of the Deep South’s realignment towards the GOP back in 1964, when soon-to-be Senator-for-Life Strom Thurmond became a Republican and then Barry Goldwater carried the state, the first of 14 out of 15 GOP presidential winners there. When Thurmond retired at the age of 100, he was succeeded by Darline’s older brother Lindsey, who won four Senate terms and was working on another when he suddenly died in July.

Kansas, where Cook now considers Democrat Adam Hamilton an even bet to defeat incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall, has backed exactly one Democratic presidential candidate in the last 90 years. The last Democratic Senate win in the Sunflower State was 94 years ago. Something extraordinary is happening this year. Aside from Kansas, in next-door Nebraska, independent candidate Dan Osborn has better than a puncher’s chance against Republican Senator Pete........

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