Speed Reads

The Daily Showdown

Trevor Noah looks at the familiar faces running for Congress in 2018, and also Stacey Dash

The 2018 midterms "are shaping up to be dramatic," Trevor Noah said on Tuesday's Daily Show, unofficially kicking off the late-night 2018 election coverage. "Because with Trump's low approval numbers, the Democrats have the momentum going into November — yeah, the same way Hillary had the momentum going into November." Rather than riding out the blue wave, several Republicans have opted to retire, he added, "so this campaign season has more empty seats than a birthday dinner for Harvey Weinstein."

But the cast of characters is filled with familiar names and faces — Mitt Romney, for example, "is definitely going to win" the Senate race in Utah, Noah said. "The dude's got resting senator face, look at him." Other candidates have last names you will recognize, like Levi Sanders, a Bernie Sanders progeny and "clone" running for a House seat in New Hampshire, and then there are some people who are running "just for the fame," Noah said, pointing to former Fox News contributor and Clueless actress Stacey Dash, a newly minted candidate for a House seat in Southern California.

"She's running as a Republican in Compton and Watts," neighborhoods "so black they make Wakanda look like a Panera," Noah laughed. Even though this is clearly a publicity stunt, or maybe an audition for Celebrity Big Brother, "running to become more famous actually works," he added. "The only time it didn't work was when Donald Trump did it but then he won by accident. Yeah, he's that bad or that good, I can't tell which one it is. The point is that we'd better pray that Vladimir Putin isn't a big fan of Clueless." Watch below. Peter Weber