FBI Director: U.S. should expect Russian interference in 2018, 2020 elections

[Virginiá]

https://www.cyberscoop.com/fbi-director-u-s-expect-russian-interference-2018-2020-elections/

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Not much more than a quote, though.

However, it raises an interesting question. It's not something I would have considered a year ago for 2018. Despite all Trump's existing (and potential) missteps, blunders and scandals, we might still end up in a situation where Republicans continue to win elections because of foreign power(s) running hacking campaigns against Democrats.

This is one area where Democrats will need to step up their efforts quickly and bigly. Smaller campaigns are more vulnerable to this kind of stuff, and if they aren't prepared, they will be easy targets for hackers to break in and start leaking documents. Even benign emails/etc can simply "look bad" out of context and be enough to tilt the election the other way if done at the right moment - but we all know how that goes after 2016.

Thoughts?

[Skill and Chance]

Ehhh, we're basically in a brave new world where personal scandals don't really matter much at all.  Creating an HRC style "crooked" atmosphere around a random state legislator, small town mayor, or businessman/woman is much more of a lift.

[Virginiá]

Ehhh, we're basically in a brave new world where personal scandals don't really matter much at all.  Creating an HRC style "crooked" atmosphere around a random state legislator, small town mayor, or businessman/woman is much more of a lift.

Well it's not so much about small town elections, at least from the Russian angle. It seems like they could target Senate, Congressional and maybe some gubernatorial races.

I wholeheartedly believe scandals still matter, and mattered in 2016. If they can hack the campaigns/personal accounts of 10 Democratic candidates in swing Congressional districts and dig up some embarrassing stuff, then leak in October or something, they could help Republicans keep control of the House (assuming we're in a situation where they might lose it). I mean there is no guarantee they can scare up enough damaging information to do that, but it's now a possibility everyone must consider.

It doesn't help much that our president is a guy who benefited a lot from such actions, encouraged it, and may have even directly cooperated if recent reports are to be trusted. I'm not sure how we can rely on Trump's administration to fight back against this.

[publicunofficial]

Ehhh, we're basically in a brave new world where personal scandals don't really matter much at all.  Creating an HRC style "crooked" atmosphere around a random state legislator, small town mayor, or businessman/woman is much more of a lift.

Personal scandals hurt you if you're not Donald Trump. That's where I think we're at.

There's no cult of personality to save, say, Dean Heller if a skeleton comes out of his closet.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

It won't have as much impact as the 2016 election due to the fact we already made a decision on the email scandal and the Clinton foundation and the donations from Arab countries in relation to Libya.

Trump has business dealings with Russia and the ACA is very popular now, and he only named off the states, where the cost explodes in states he won in deep red country, not blue country. 

[Skill and Chance]

Ehhh, we're basically in a brave new world where personal scandals don't really matter much at all.  Creating an HRC style "crooked" atmosphere around a random state legislator, small town mayor, or businessman/woman is much more of a lift.

Personal scandals hurt you if you're not Donald Trump. That's where I think we're at.

There's no cult of personality to save, say, Dean Heller if a skeleton comes out of his closet.

I should clarify that there are still scandals that can stick, but they generally need to involve Watergate/Tammany Hall level stuff at minimum and probably violent crime. 

Also, if Russian-linked organizations keep doing this over and over again and to more sympathetic victims, it will eventually backfire and generate a sympathy vote for the Democrats.