Tuesday, a few off-year contests take place across the country, including…
gubernatorial elections in Louisiana, Kentucky, and Mississippi (LA’s is on November 16th)
elections for the entire Virginia state legislature, where the last state Senate election was in 2015 and the 2017 state House election resulted in a split chamber decided by a coin flip
Kentucky features incumbent douchebag Matt Bevin against Andy Beshear, the state attorney general and son of former two-term governor Steve Beshear. Polls show a close race, with Beshear slightly ahead in some and tied in others.
Mississippi has an unusually strong Democratic candidate, state attorney general Jim Hood, facing off against Republican lieutenant governor Tate Reeves. Polling generally shows Reeves slightly favored, but some polls have Hood ahead and the fact that this race is even close in Mississippi is noteworthy.
Louisiana, the subject of many recent Trump tweets, features incumbent Democrat John Bel Edwards against GOP challenger Eddie Rispone, who is noteworthy for not having a Wikipedia page. It’s amazing how little a Google search turns up in terms of telling you who the fuck this guy is, other than that he is a “businessman”. Polls show a tight race, with Edwards slightly favored.
In Virginia, the state Senate is currently 21 R/19 D and the state House 51 R/49 D. The 2017 elections, which were only for the House, saw huge Democratic gains and Ds hope to keep the momentum going, as this will be the first election (I think?) to determine who gets to draw district lines for the next decade after the 2020 census.
Some locales have ballot measures and stuff like that happening - on a recent trip to Seattle I noticed a large amount of signs campaigning for and against (mostly against, lol racists) an affirmative action measure on the state ballot.
fwiw, dems currently heavily favored in VA, KY Gov is R favored, LA pretty close race. MS R heavily favored obviously.
KY the most interesting one to me just from how strong is the Trump firepower still?
edit–MS has a jim crow law he can’t just get the most votes or the legislature (republican obviously) decides, he also has to get most districts. In other words ****. That’s gonna be difficult. I’m sure that’s gonna be fought in the courts in that scenario but ugh.
Up to D’s to show up, you know R’s are going to. It’s always hard to be absolutely sure in an odd year election.
So an off year but still some important races going on. Virginia has their state legislative elections today. This will be important when it comes to redistricting Virginia after the 2020 census. A democrat majority could ensure no gerrymandering fuckery.
Also we have governor elections in Louisiana Mississippi and Kentucky. Mississippi looks to be a lock Republican. Kentucky should be a lock Republican, except Bevin has repeatedly shot himself in the foot by attacking teachers. Which in a lot of rural areas, is a large source of jobs. But Bevin has been running a lot of ads about guns, abortion, and Trump. Ever since then his numbers have been growing.
If there is a prayer in removing Moscow Mitch in 2020, it begins with the elections tomorrow. Not only that but Kentucky’s AG race is closely contested. In one corner we have lifelong democrat politician and former KY AG Greg Stumbo. In the other corner we have Daniel Cameron. An African-American, who clerked for Moscow Mitch, and is clearly a Moscow Mitch sycophant. I legit tried to google his age but couldn’t find it. He did graduate high school in the same year I did, which puts him at 33.
All that to say Daniel Cameron actually scares me more than Bevin. Moscow Mitch is clearly lining Daniel to be his eventual replacement. Makes deplorables so happy to say “I’m not racist, I voted for Daniel Cameron.” Also I am scared of another term of Bevin without a Democratic AG. Apparently KY has had a democratic AG since 1944. Repubs have gone all in trying to turn this today.
Also go Louisiana. Apparently they have been solid since electing a democrat for governor. Except for car insurance rates?
Oh I hope I’m wrong. I’ll be voting straight Democrat today.
It’s still darn good results tonight if dems just take over VA and hang on to LA. KY or MS and R’s might start being a little more than troubled (except in the lock red states which are only getting redder). Might get the most furrowed of brows.
turnout not 2018 levels but without a gov race I guess that’s to be expected over in at least VA.
the predictit market has gone bananas on KY already ,I just sold out of it because I don’t f’ing know. Someone smarter than me can make all the money there.
Beshear had a slight lead at 12.6k>12.1k with <1% reporting from the cities. Now down 45/52. I always forget how much of a sweat election night swings are.
