We're gonna make this one quick today. Last night was a special election night, and it was absolutely fantastic for the Democrats.
First off, in the great state of Wisconsin, they held a primary election to fill a vacancy on the state Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin is currently controlled 4-3 by conservatives, but if a liberal candidate wins the general election in April, liberals will be in control, 4-3. Wisconsin law stipulates that the Wisconsin Supreme Court election be nonpartisan, so that voters are not simply picking candidates because they have a D or an R next to their name, but the four candidates who ran for the job have very clear ideological positions. There were two liberals who ran, along with two conservatives, but the law states that the top two finishers in the primary advance to the general election.
Liberals quickly consolidated around one candidate named Janet Protasiewicz, a judge in Milwaukee County. Although there was another fantastic liberal candidate named Everett Mitchell, who is a judge in the Dane County Circuit Court, it was decided early on by many liberals that Protasiewitz was the better candidate. On the other hand, the two conservative candidates were fighting a brutal war between each other for second place. The winner of the fight was former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Daniel Kelly, as he came in second place with a 3% lead over his fellow conservative, Jennifer Dorow. Protasiewicz received more votes than the other two conservatives combined - 46.4% to their combined 46.2% - and the other liberal received 7.5% of the vote, meaning that liberals won the primary by a 54-46 margin! For a state that only backed Joe Biden by 0.6%, that's a huge over-performance for the democrats, and a good sign that we can take back the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Second, in the great state of Virginia, where the GOP fluke-election governor Glenn Youngkin has decided to carry the flag in the culture war, Jennifer McClellan became the first black woman elected to congress from Virginia. Now, the district she was elected to was very blue, but she beat the spread by a surprisingly large amount. She won by 45 points, whereas Biden won by 36 points in 2020, and Don McEachin won by 22 points in 2022.
Third, in the great state of New Hampshire, the democrat and the republican tied for a seat in the state House.
*Side Note: This actually happens a lot because the New Hampshire House of Representatives is the third largest legislative body in the entire English-speaking world. It has 400 members, but NH is so small of a state that each district has an average of just under 3500 constituents. They are all elected every two years - so run 400 elections with a voter base the size of a large high school every other year, and you will get tied elections once in a while.
They ran the election again, and the democrat won with 56% of the vote.
Fourth, in the great state of Kentucky, a special election was held in a very blue district, but the Democrat won by 54 points, versus Biden's 31 point victory in 2020.
And finally, to put a cherry on top of this night, the last link in the chain for Senate Democrats in 2024 has been secured into place. Jon Tester, the Democratic senator from Montana who boasts a 60% approval rating in a Trump +16 state announced he will be running for re-election in 2024. The timing of his announcement was so impeccable, one Twitter user commented, saying:
Yes, special elections are weird - and there are a lot of things that can happen before Election D-Day, November 5, 2024. But if republicans were hoping to put out their dumpster fire, it just got more gasoline poured onto it.
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