So what happened in the Midterms? Honestly, there are so many stories, I will have to break them up into a couple of posts. But for today, let’s get started with the biggest stories and some of the quieter stories that didn’t break through the noise.
The House
The Democrats won control of the House! Yes, we did. As of midnight on Election Night, the Democrats have taken the House and we are currently at the magic number: 218 seats. Again, as of the writing of this post, that number is due to the Democrats flipping 28 Republican seats blue. There are still 23 seats that haven’t been called yet.
The Senate
The Senate, I’m sorry to say, did not go well for us. We knew it was an extremely challenging year, with so many of the Democrats in ruby-red states and so few Republicans defending seats. The Republicans retain control of the Senate. Currently, they have 52 seats, to the Democrats’ 44 seats. There are 4 seats that haven’t been called yet in AZ, NV, MT, and CA.
The Governors
There were 36 governors races: The Democrats have flipped 6 governor’s mansions (IL, KS, ME, NM, MI, WI), while the Republicans have not flipped any. The current total is Democrats have 14 while the Republicans have 18. Still outstanding are GA, NV, CT, and AK.
The State Legislatures
Again, here the Democrats have seen state houses that have flipped, while the Republicans have only been able to hold on to what they had. The results so far:
✦ Democrats flipped: Colorado Senate, Minnesota House, both the New Hampshire Senate and House, Maine Senate, and New York Senate
✦ Democrats broke the supermajorities in: North Carolina Senate and House, Michigan Senate, and Pennsylvania Senate (Supermajorities can override the governor’s vetoes.)
✦ Democrats gained supermajorities in: Oregon Senate and House
Important Stories
✦ Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska voted to expand Medicaid
✦ Florida voted for a measure that will restore the voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences
✦ North Carolina’s attempt to shift the power to fill judicial vacancies from the governor’s office to the legislature fails
✦ Florida votes to ban offshore drilling
✦ Washington fails to pass a carbon tax to fund environmental programs
✦ Ayanna Pressley became the first African-American woman to serve Congress from Massachusetts
✦ Gerri Cannon won her race to become the first transgender representative in the New Hampshire legislature
✦ Sharice Davids (KS) and Debra Haaland (NM) won their races to become the first two Native American women to ever serve in Congress
✦ Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia won their races to become the first Latina women to represent Texas in Congress
✦ Rashida Tlaib (MI) and Ilhan Omar (MN) won their races to become the first Muslim American women to serve Congress.
Stay tuned for a post about what happened with the many ballot measures tackling voting rights, Secretary of State and Attorney General races, and of course, updating the missing pieces of the stories above.
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Categories: Uncategorized
Any tally on how many state legislaive seats Dems may have gained? We lost nearly 1000 during the Obama years; hoping we won a significant number of those back. Thanks for this roundup.
No totals yet, but working on it!