We got back Virginia five by five. I called it all right.
Winsome Earl-Sears’s name turned out to be accurate. She did win some. But not all.
On a separate note, I was driving home today from various tasks (including voting) and I went through an intersection which had a cluster of political signs in it. And I noticed one sign said “JUNK REMOVAL”.
I slowed down to see which organization had posted this sign and which candidates they saw as junk who needed to be removed. But all it had was a phone number.
And then I realized that while this sign was surrounded by political campaign ads, it was in fact an advertisement for a business that actually removed junk.
Fantastic night for Democrats. Take the victory lap, their is so little good news coming out right now that it’s important to recognize the good things when they happen.
Tomorrow there will be more work to be done, it’s important also not to lose sight of that fact. Fascism isn’t going away without a fight but democracy isn’t dead yet.
Trump is going to blow a gasket over this. I don’t know if it was in this thread or another one but I know he’s already posting on his little fake social media site.
Energy waxes and wanes, and it’s difficult to sustain over a long period of time. But this does give me a little hope for the midterms next year. It’ll be interesting to see what shenanigans MAGA comes with in response to the results tonight.
It seems like it was a blue tsunami tonight? Did a prominent Republican win anywhere? If they did I haven’t seen it.
ISTM that the main takeaway from tonight should be that voters want Democrats who actually stand for something and will fight for progressive causes, as opposed to mealy-mouthed appeals to “bipartisan solutions” and “kitchen table issues”, will throw entire demographics under the bus in an attempt to appeal to “Reagan Democrats” who all died or went MAGA ages ago, and generally attempting to be Diet Republicans.
I had seen some rumblings that independent Watson Gomes would be a spoiler in the Aurora, Colorado municipal elections, where the top two candidates will be appointed to at-large seats on the council. At the moment, though, incumbent Republicans Danielle Jurinsky and Amsalu Kassaw are in 3rd and 4th place behind Democratic challengers Rob Andrews and Alli Jackson. If that holds, the (theoretically nonpartisan) council would shift from having 7 conservatives (six Republicans and the also-theoretically-nonpartisan Angela Lawson) to being split 5:5, an outcome that was not at all certain.
Ballot measure MM, levying a tax of $486 on high income earners to fund school meals, passed by a huge margin, as did LL, on the same topic. I believe Colorado is still somewhat constrained by the 1992 TABOR amendment that limits the state’s ability to spend tax revenue, although it’s been progressively (…so to speak) watered down over all the years I’ve been able to vote. This might be the first time that the ballot I submitted and the final results look exactly the same.
Both the NJ and Virginia governors campaigned pretty moderate, so I’m not sure Mamdani’s win means go left.
I’d also emphasize that this was an off year election, so caution against extracting too much. Still a good sign.
Brian
Nice to see the entire nation has not gone to shit. Let’s see what follows…
Isn’t that illegal? The polling place workers should have bounced that guy.
It being an off-year election with Trump not on the ballot does mean you have to temper any conclusions drawn. And I agree the contrasts between Sherill (pretty progressive) and Spangberger (moderate) and Mamdani (democratic socialist) show that the exact policy mix might not matter as much as we tend to think.
What seems to matter is (in some order of importance): be authentic and at least somewhat charismatic, don’t be in power when voters are pissed, focus relentlessly on economic issues almost to the exclusion of all else whenever possible, have the candidates general policy framework be roughly in line with the electorate.
The last one is at least somewhat important, I think. If you ranked those three races from right to left (politically) it would go VA->NJ->NYC. Which, of course, is exactly how the candidates rank as well. And I would argue that the national electorate is actually just a bit to the right of VA. The good news is that MAGA has basically ceded anything to the left of Trump to the Democrats, so there is a lot of room to maneuver.
I think you are right.
But it was early morning and it didn’t enter my mind.
It was a good night, but I’m worried the GOP will gerrymander so much that they will retain the house in the 2026 election. Isn’t the SCOTUS about to overturn even more parts of the voting rights act, which will make it easier to discriminate against POC in elections, which will make gerrymandering in the south easier.
It was a good night but this country is still fucked in the head.
Agree. My comcern is that yesterday’s results will lead to even more aggressive shenanigans by MAGA to ensure they don’t cede power in 2026z
Not a race I was following or even aware of, but even the smallest victories matter:
In Arizona the minimum distance for any campaigning at the poll is 75 feet from the entrance to the building and it is plainly marked with signs.
16-515. “Seventy-five foot limit” notices; posting; violation; classification
A. Except as prescribed in this section and section 16-580, a person shall not be allowed to remain inside the seventy-five foot limit while the polls are open, except for the purpose of voting, and except the election officials, one representative at any one time of each political party represented on the ballot who has been appointed by the county chairman of that political party and the challengers allowed by law, and no electioneering may occur within the seventy-five foot limit. Voters having cast their ballots shall promptly move outside the seventy-five foot limit.
B. The board of supervisors shall furnish, with the ballots for each polling place, three notices, printed in letters not less than two inches high, with the heading: “Seventy-five foot limit” and underneath that heading the following:
No person shall be allowed to remain inside these limits while the polls are open, except for the purpose of voting, and except the election officials, one representative at any one time of each political party represented on the ballot who has been appointed by the county chairman of such political party, and the challengers allowed by law. Voters having cast their ballots shall at once retire without the seventy-five foot limit. A person violating any provision of this notice is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor.
…
F. Notwithstanding any other law, an election official, a representative of a political party who has been appointed by the county chairman of that political party or a challenger who is authorized by law to be within the seventy-five foot limit as prescribed by this section shall not wear, carry or display materials that identify or express support for or opposition to a candidate, a political party or organization, a ballot question or any other political issue and shall not electioneer within the seventy-five foot limit of a polling place.
…
I. For the purposes of this section, electioneering occurs when an individual knowingly, intentionally, by verbal expression and in order to induce or compel another person to vote in a particular manner or to refrain from voting expresses support for or opposition to a candidate who appears on the ballot in that election, a ballot question that appears on the ballot in that election or a political party with one or more candidates who appear on the ballot in that election.
I’m not too worried about the gerrymanders, especially if they are even more extreme than they already are. In a wave election for the other side, gerrymanders can backfire (dummymander) and the party that gerrymanders could actually lose seats. I fully expect that to happen in 2026, especially in Texas, which had an aggressive gerrymander.
Spanberger got 57% of the vote. The Lt Governor-elect got 55%. Jones only got 52.7%, the lowest of the three. I figure those three numbers say more than any of our armchair punditry could.
Pennsylvania has a similar rule and similar signs. But outside of the signs there was always a gauntlet of people from both parties handing out “voting guides” with varying degrees of aggression.
Since I moved to Arizona I’ve always voted by mail so have been spared this bullshit.
It is bullshit and they were fairly close to the entrance. I might see if I can complain to someone locally.
I never checked into PA’s regulations for this but from what I found it is a mere 10 feet!
I could be wrong.